NACOGDOCHES — The Sam Houston soccer squad begins the Kendall Ayers era when the Bearkats head to the state's oldest city to battle rival Stephen F. Austin in the 2025 season opener on Thursday.
 
Ayers, who was the head coach at Texas Southern in 2024, became the fourth head coach in program history in April when she was hired to replace Sonia Curvelo who became the head coach at San Jose State in March. In her first and only season at Texas Southern, Ayers guided the Tigers to the program's first Southwestern Athletic Conference regular season championship and the championship game of the league's postseason tournament in 2024.
 
The Tigers went 9-9-2 overall and 6-1-1 in conference play. Texas Southern beat Prairie View and Alabama A&M to reach the finals of the SWAC Tournament where it fell to Southern 1-0 in the title game.
 
The Bearkats have steadily improved in the first two seasons as members of CUSA. They finished fifth in 2023 and added two victories to improve to a fourth-place finish in 2024. Sam Houston also posted the program's first winning season with a record of 8-7-3 since the 2020-21 season.
 
Jasmine Marquez as voted to the All-CUSA team by league coaches. Last season while starting all nine conference games, she scored two goals, including one game winner.
 
Sophomore Indigo Simms is Sam Houston's leading returning scorer with four goals. Pam Murray and Tiana Johnson both scored two goals to give the Kats three of their top five scorers back for the 2025 campaign.
 
The Bearkats and Lumberjacks played to a 1-1 tie when the two teams met last season at Pritchett Field. The longtime rivals who faced each other in the WAC and Southland Conference, have played 26 matches all time with SFA leading the series 21-4-1.
 
The match is set to be streamed on ESPN+ at 7 p.m. and live stats are available on the Bearkat Soccer schedule page on www.gobearkats.com.