Houston Aces
| Full name | Houston Aces Soccer Club |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2012 |
| Stadium |
Houston Sports Park Houston, Texas |
| Stadium capacity |
1,000 |
| President | Pascal Paul Piazza |
| Head Coach | Aguinaldo Ferreira |
| League | United Women's Soccer |
| 2016 | 3rd Western Division Playoff: DNQ |
| Website | Club home page |
The Houston Aces are a professional North American women's soccer team founded in 2012. The Aces participate in the Big Sky Conference of the WPSL, one of two leagues on the second tier of women's soccer in the United States and Canada. They play at Houston Baptist University, and also field several academy and youth teams. They joined in the United Women's Soccer on 2016.
The Aces' 2012 season was largely unimpressive, earning just 11 points from 12 games and finishing 7th out of 11 teams in the Big Sky - South division.
In 2013, the Aces were part of a group of seven teams slated to play in the second season of the WPSL Elite, which was to be a set of games played in addition to regular WPSL games (unlike the 2012 WPSL Elite that was truly its own league), but organization ultimately fell through.
The Aces' greatest accomplishment to date is winning the 2013 National Women's Open, defeating all three other teams by a combined scoreline of 8-1; their academy team also qualified for the 2013 National Women's U23 competition, but failed to qualify for the final with a 1-2 record and a combined score of 4-8. This was accomplished as part of a 2013 season so far undefeated in all competitions, winning sixteen straight games from friendlies in May through mid-July - a far change from their 2012 season.
They followed these Open Cup and regular seasons successes with a deep run into the 2013 WPSL Playoffs, falling just short of the title in a 1-2 loss to the San Diego WFC SeaLions. During that time, it was reported that the Aces have ambitions to join the National Women's Soccer League, potentially as early as 2014. However, during the 2013-2014 offseason, the Houston Dynamo applied for an expansion slot to create the Houston Dash, effectively closing the door for the Aces.
For the 2014 season, the Aces officially took control of the Houston South Select, renaming the team as the Aces South Select Academy. Despite this growth and their success last season, the Aces struggled through 2014, dropping points in preseason and in Big Sky conference play, as well as finishing runners-up in the USASA Amateur Championships and finishing a distant fourth in their Open Cup title defense. Still, despite these struggles, they had another deep run in the WPSL playoff, once again making it to the final before losing by one goal to Beach Futbol Club (also from WPSL's Pac-South division).
...
Wikipedia