6-0. The best start in program history.

In 23 previous years of Texas soccer, not a single UT team has ever managed to start a season off more successfully than this 2017 edition of the Longhorns.

However, some previous incarnations of the Burnt Orange & White did come oh so close.

The 2008 Longhorns beat one rated foe in No. 25 Louisville on the way to christening the year at 5-0 before suffering a scoreless tie in their sixth match against Arizona State.

Texas dropped its 2011 season-opener to Loyola Marymount before rattling off five consecutive victories over unranked teams.

Just three seasons ago, head coach Angela Kelly 's third UT squad managed an unbeaten 4-0-2 mark over its initial six matches with ties against Arizona State and No. 25 Arkansas.

Of course, every season certainly isn't built the same. The opponents and schedule difficulty are always different, injuries can crop up at any time, travel or weather can factor in and there are key graduation losses to replace as well as youth and inexperience to manage.

Regardless, through six matches, the 2017 Texas soccer team has put together all the pieces to an undefeated puzzle that no other Longhorns squad has previously been able to manage.

Perhaps even more surprising is that the 6-0 start has occurred in a year where just two seniors are active on a 27-player roster dominated by 18 freshmen and sophomores. In fact, to this point, six of Texas' 11 total goals, nine of 13 total assists and 21 of 35 total points have been tallied by players from those two classes.

"I believe this start is the byproduct of investment," Kelly said. "Investment in the offseason. Investment in perseverance through times when they didn't get results (over the past few seasons). Just a complete buy-in from the entire squad throughout this entire preseason and now three weeks into the year.

"Ever since I've been here at Texas, there's never been a result that's been from a lack of effort. We've always given whatever a hundred percent of ourselves looked like. I think the difference this season so far is that we now have a lot of depth. We have a lot of talented players, and we're paying greater attention to detail. When you put all of those things together these types of things can happen."

Types of things like the one that happened on Friday night (Sept. 8) at Mike A. Myers Stadium as Kelly's youthful UT group made its first major 2017 statement, seemingly putting it all together during an impressive 3-0 victory over a nationally-ranked Colorado team that entered the match having not allowed a single goal over almost 608 minutes of playing time this season. The three-goal output marked the most by any Texas soccer team against a ranked opponent in almost seven years.

"I thought we had good composure against Colorado," Kelly said. "We were able to play positively out of pressure and move for one another. That's something we've been working on. Connectivity. Mobility. Those are all aspects of a quality squad, and I think our movement was good. I think (the result) could have been even better, but that's exciting. It's a credit to the players. They put in the work. When you put in the work, those are the types of results this program should expect."

Sometimes, the hardest part for a young team is learning how to win. With six positive results out of six to begin the 2017 campaign, the Longhorns have quickly shown they are indeed learning and appear to know exactly what to credit for their early success.

"(This start) is historic," junior midfielder Katie Glenn said. "It's something that hasn't been done at Texas before. We've worked really hard up until this point and everything we've been working for and competing for has been paying off.

"I think we're just a team this year. On and off the field, everyone has the same mentality. We're all on the same page, and we're all wanting to win. We just came out strong the first couple of games, and that's been helping us maintain our momentum, rather than picking it up as we go along. We're off to a good start and we just want to keep it rolling."

"When we came here on the first day of preseason, I think we all had the same mentality," junior forward Alexa Adams said. "We started off stronger. We didn't have to go through a couple of games in the season to figure out how to work with each other. I think we started that off the first day, and that's what's helped us get off to this good start. We have to come out and compete every single day at practice. We're making each other better by having competition in practice and putting ourselves into tough situations so we can translate that to the field on game day."

"I think the secret so far this season is team chemistry," sophomore forward Cyera Hintzen said. "I think this year's team is a lot closer than last year's. I also think coming out every practice and giving 100% and just competing is a big piece as well."

Of course, a six-match sample represents barely one-third of a collegiate soccer regular season, so anything is certainly possible the rest of the way.

The Longhorns clearly understand and embrace that knowledge, with Kelly and her players, despite enjoying their early successes, refusing to look very far down the road.

"I think for us, the biggest match is always our next match," Kelly said. "We schedule our out-of-conference matches to include teams such as Rice, California, North Texas or Colorado to get work against the different styles of play that we're expecting to see throughout the season. Some of the matches are on the road, and some of those are at home. That's all on purpose. We have a tremendous conference in the Big 12, and our non-conference matches help prepare us for what we might see in the league. The real season to me is conference play. That's what excites me about our results thus far this season. We've been able to get those results against some really high-quality opponents, whether on the road or at home, and against completely different playing styles."

"I think the secret to keeping this going is just taking it one match at a time," Hintzen said. "We're not worried about two matches ahead. It's about what's in front of us and treating every team we play as if they're the No. 1 team in the nation."

Up next for the Longhorns in the "one match at a time" rotation will be another stout challenge against defending Colonial Athletic Association champion Northeastern (5-2) slated for 1 p.m. CT on Sun., Sept. 10, at Mike A. Myers Stadium.