Soccer
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
- E-Mail:
- lstephenson@athletics.tamu.edu
Lori Stephenson enters her 21st season on the Texas A&M staff. She supplements one of the best soccer staffs in the country with her soccer knowledge and impressive organization skills.
Since Stephenson joined the Aggies’ staff in 2001, Texas A&M has advanced to the NCAA Championship in all 20 of her seasons, including 13 trips to the Sweet Sixteen and seven appearances in the Elite Eight with a trip to the 2014 College Cup.
Over the course of her 20 seasons, A&M has claimed nine conference regular-season crowns and seven league tournament titles.
Last season, Stephenson was part of a crew that earned United Soccer Coaches Southeast Region Staff of the Year recognition. In the unique split season, the Aggies scratched out a 12-4-1 season. In the fall, Ol’ Sarge’s charges earned a share of the SEC regular-season title with a 7-1-0 record. With two All-Americans leaving the squad in January, the coaching staff reworked the lineup to grind out an Elite Eight run in which Texas A&M got past three Top 20 opponents.
Stephenson helped guide the Maroon & White to a 14-5-3 record and 22nd consecutive NCAA Tournament bid. The season was capped off by Ally Watt becoming the highest draft pick in school history, selected sixth overall by the North Carolina Courage.
In 2018, Texas A&M started the season with a 10-match unbeaten string en route to a 17-5-1 record, and 15th Sweet Sixteen appearance.
Stephenson’s efforts helped the Aggies post the best winning percentage in school history in 2017 with an 18-2-2 mark (.864). The Maroon & White also posted a school-best 14-game winning streak, which included capturing three matches en route to the school’s third SEC Tournament title.
In 2016, Stephenson helped guide Texas A&M out of the first round of the NCAA tournament for the 19th consecutive year. In the second round, the Aggies fell in penalties to eventual National Champion USC, giving the Trojans their toughest test of the tournament.
In 2015, guiding a team that returned just three starters and seven percent of their scoring from the prior season, Stephenson helped the staff with one of its best coaching jobs. The coaching corps steered the gritty Aggies to an NCAA Championship quarterfinal spot, handing the North Carolina Tar Heels their first exit prior to the Sweet 16 in the 34-year history of the tournament.
With Stephenson’s assistance, Texas A&M experienced a historic campaign in 2014, setting a school record for wins on the way to its first-ever College Cup appearance. The Maroon & White went 22-3-2 on the season and won the SEC Double with a regular-season crown and tournament title. The Aggies became the first team to earn the SEC Double in back-to-back seasons since Florida in 2001. They also became the first SEC team since Florida in 2001 to advance to the College Cup.
Stephenson came to Texas A&M from Blinn College in Bryan, Texas, where she was an instructor of biology from 1999 to 2000. Stephenson was also a biology instructor at Methodist College in Fayetteville, N.C., her alma mater, the three previous years.
While at Methodist, Stephenson was named the interim head soccer coach in 1999. She was previously involved in the North Carolina and Region III Soccer Olympic Development Program (ODP), serving both organizations as head coach and assistant coach while living in North Carolina from 1986-90 and when she returned to the state from 1995-96.
In addition to her duties with the A&M soccer team, Stephenson developed the Brazos Mystic '89 girls team from a recreational team to a South Texas Division I competitor. The Mystic '89 team won state championship titles in the Texas State Cup (2003), the President's Cup State Championship (2004, 2005), and were finalists in the Director's Cup Southern Region National Championship in 2005.
A 1984 graduate of Reid Ross High School in Fayetteville, N.C., Stephenson earned a bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry from Methodist in 1988 and later earned her master's degree in cellular and molecular biology from Roswell Park Cancer Institute at the University of Buffalo.
An accomplished player, Stephenson was a member of the inaugural women's soccer team at Methodist and started all four years of her playing career from 1984-87. She led the Lady Monarchs to the Dixie Athletic Conference Championship in 1985, ‘86 and ‘87 and berths in the NCAA Division III National Championship in ’86 and ’87, the first two years the level had their own tournament. Stephenson served as the Monarchs' team captain for three years and earned multiple all-conference honors. In addition to being on the soccer team, she spent two years on the tennis team.
For her efforts on the field, Stephenson was an All-America selection by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America following the 1986 season as well as being named the North Carolina Female Athlete of the Year. She was inducted into the Methodist University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016.
Stephenson’s work in the classroom earned Academic All-America citations from Adidas following the 1986 and 1987 seasons.
The former Lori Silvasy is married to A&M soccer Associate Head Coach Phil Stephenson. The couple resides in College Station and has two children, Brittany and Christopher.
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