Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowgirls Release 2011 Soccer Schedule
April 12, 2011 | Cowgirl Soccer
April 12, 2011
2011 Oklahoma State Soccer Schedule in PDF Format
STILLWATER, Okla. - Oklahoma State released its 2011 women's soccer schedule today, a schedule highlighted by matches against seven opponents that made the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship last season.
OSU is coming off the most successful season in program history as the Cowgirls finished 20-4-2, advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship and captured their third consecutive Big 12 Conference championship. The Cowgirls were ranked No. 5 in the final NSCAA poll and return 10 starters from that squad in 2011, including All-Americans Melinda Mercado and AD Franch.
"With the level our team is competing at right now, we want to play as many tough games as we can because it's the only way to challenge the group and get ready for conference play and the postseason," said Colin Carmichael, who is entering his seventh season as OSU's head coach. "With the group we have coming back, we expect to be able to compete with high-level programs. We also understand that the competition will be very tough and if we lose one or two along the way, hopefully that will at least prepare us for the postseason."
Among the non-conference highlights of OSU's 2011 schedule is a trip to Los Angeles to take on USC and San Diego and a showdown against BYU in Stillwater. Other attractive non-conference contests include Creighton, TCU, Arkansas and UAB, and the Cowgirls will also host Oklahoma in a non-conference match in August.
"We tried to make the non-conference games challenging to prepare us for Big 12 play and also to make sure our RPI is high enough to give us a chance to go to the NCAA Tournament again, and this will be a tough schedule," Carmichael said. "USC and San Diego are two perennial Top 25 programs so those will be two very challenging games. Then we have BYU coming here, and they're a very good team with a strong history of making the NCAA Tournament. Then you have teams like TCU, Arkansas, UAB and Creighton that are all quality opponents as well."
OSU will host 11 matches at the Cowgirl Soccer Complex in 2011, including three-straight home games to open the season. The Cowgirls will face TCU and UAB on the opening weekend of the season.
Coming off three-straight Big 12 Conference championships (2008 regular season, 2009 and 2010 tournament), OSU opens league play on Sept. 23 when the Cowgirls host Kansas. The Cowgirls also face Missouri, Texas and Texas Tech in Stillwater, while hitting the road to take on Oklahoma, Iowa State, Baylor and Texas A&M.
The Big 12 Championship will be held Nov. 2-6 in San Antonio, while the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship begins with first-round games Nov. 11-13.
