Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowgirls Gun For Big 12 Title In Kansas City
November 04, 2013 | Cowgirl Soccer
Nov. 4, 2013
OSU Game Notes - Big 12 Championship
Oklahoma State (7-5-6)
at the Big 12 Soccer Championship
Nov. 6, 8 & 10 • Kansas City, Mo.
Swope Soccer Village
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State is the No. 6 seed at this week's Big 12 Conference Soccer Championship in Kansas City, Mo., and will open tourney play Wednesday at 2 p.m. against third-seeded Texas at Swope Soccer Village. The Cowgirls are 7-5-6 overall and finished with a 2-3-3 mark in conference play.
The Cowgirls are coming off an 11-6-3 season in 2012 in which they finished seventh in the Big 12 Conference standings with a 1-4-3 mark. Eight starters return from that squad, led by senior Kristen Kelley and junior Miriam Rhinehart.
OSU is in the 18th season of its program's history, with head coach Colin Carmichael in his ninth season at the helm. The Cowgirls have earned a berth in the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship in six of the last seven years and have claimed Big 12 titles in four of the last five seasons.
The Tourney Field
OSU will be gunning for its fourth Big 12 Soccer Championship title this week. The Cowgirls won the tourney in 2003 (3-2 double overtime triumph vs. Missouri), 2009 (1-0 over Texas A&M) and 2010 (won PK shootout vs. Oklahoma after 1-1 tie) and are 13-5-3 all time in the tourney. Last season, OSU lost to Baylor, 3-0, in the opening round.
OSU's all-time records against the teams in Kansas City are: Texas (7-10-5), Texas Tech (12-6-2), TCU (3-1-2), Baylor (9-7-3), Kansas (9-8-3), West Virginia (0-2-0) and Iowa State (8-8-2).
If OSU wins its opening-round match, the Cowgirls will advance to Friday's semifinals to face the winner of No. 2-seed Texas Tech and No. 7-seed TCU at 8 p.m. The title match is Sunday at 3:30 p.m.
On The Air & The Web
Fans wishing to follow the matches at the Big 12 Soccer Championship can do so in a variety of ways. Live stats and free webcasts for each match will be available at www.big12sports.com (links available under Championships tab). Sunday's championship match will air live on Fox Sports 1.
Winning Is A Habit
By its recent standards, OSU had a down year in 2012, but the program has reached unprecedented heights during the 2000s.
From 2006-11, the Cowgirls earned six-straight NCAA Tournament bids and advanced to at least the second round each time, including back-to-back Elite Eight appearances in 2010 and 2011. And from 2008-11, OSU celebrated four consecutive Big 12 championships, bringing its total to five league titles in the last 10 seasons -- three tournament (2003, '09, '10) and two regular season (2008, '11).
In 2011, OSU set a school record with 22 wins. The Cowgirls finished the '11 regular season 17-0-2, joining the 1996 Nebraska team as the only Big 12 Conference teams in history to go unbeaten during the regular season. OSU was 6-0-2 in conference play to claim its second regular-season Big 12 title and in doing so became the first Big 12 team since Texas A&M in 2002 to complete the league schedule without a loss.
Clutch When It Counts
OSU has made seven appearances in the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship and ranks ninth all-time in tourney winning percentage among teams that have played at least 15 games. The Cowgirls are 9-4-4 in the NCAA Tournament, which translates to a .647 winning percentage.
Century Mark
With the win over Creighton in 2011, OSU head coach Colin Carmichael notched his 100th career victory. In his ninth season at the helm, Carmichael sports a career mark of 134-40-28 (.733).
Karen Hancock, now a Cowgirl assistant, served as OSU's first-ever head coach and was 110-89-19 in 11 seasons.
Home Sweet Home
The Cowgirls were 4-2-3 on their home field this season. OSU is 37-3-7 (.862) at the Cowgirl Soccer Complex since 2010, and the Cowgirls sport a 55-5-7 record (.873) on their home field since 2008. They are 113-29-14 (.769) all time on their current home turf.
Young Guns
OSU's 24-player roster includes just six upperclassmen, only two of them seniors (Kelley & Fields), while 18 players are either freshmen (10), redshirt freshmen (2) or sophomores (6).
Of OSU's regular starting 11, nine are either freshmen or sophomores, and in the match at North Texas, the Cowgirls started six sophomores and four freshmen.
Last season, OSU's regular starting lineup consisted of five freshmen and two sophomores, and while the team is a bit more experienced in 2013, several newcomers are already making significant impacts, with freshmen Krissi Killion, Courtney Dike, Natalie Calhoun, Joanna Robertson and Michela Ongaro having cracked the starting lineup.
Freshmen have accounted for 15 of OSU's 25 goals and nine of its 18 assists in 2013.
Star Watch
OSU senior midfielder Kristen Kelley was selected to the 2013 Preseason All-Big 12 Team by the league's head coaches.
Kelley has started 75 career games, recording nine goals and five assists. She missed the second half of her junior season with an injury but recorded three goals and an assist in 12 games.
Like Kissing Your Sister
OSU's six ties this season is the most in program history, two more than the 2008 Cowgirl squad. The NCAA record is nine, set by William & Mary in 2005.
Free Soccer
OSU has played eight overtime games this season and is 2-0-6 in those games. The Cowgirls have played 142:15 of extra time this season.
RPI Talk
In last week's official NCAA RPI, OSU came in at No. 53. The Cowgirls' RPI ranks as the fourth best in the Big 12 behind West Virginia (21), Texas Tech (34) and Texas (40).
Freshman Phenom
Cowgirl freshman Courtney Dike has quickly established herself as a prolific scorer at the collegiate level. In her first 18 games, the forward from Edmond, Okla., has recorded three two-goal performances -- vs. Vanderbilt, Oklahoma and Missouri State -- and is tied for second in the Big 12 with 11 goals while ranking third with 26 points. Of her 47 shots, 24 of those (51 percent) have been on goal. She has been named the Big 12 Offensive Player and Newcomer of the Week and the College Sports Madness Big 12 Player of the Week on two occasions this season -- Sept. 3 after recording three goals and an assist in wins against OU and Gonzaga and on Oct. 22 after matching those same stats in games against Texas and Missouri State.
Scoring is nothing new for Dike, who netted 94 goals and 32 assists during her career at Edmond North High School.
Sophomore Surges
As a freshman last season, Madison Mercado earned All-Big 12 Second Team honors and finished second on OSU with four goals. In 2013, the midfielder has four goals and has surpassed her assist total from a year ago with a team-high four. Of her four goals, two have been game winners (vs. UT Martin and Gonzaga).
Fellow sophomore midfielder Allie Stephenson has also stepped up her production this season, with her six goals tripling her total of a year ago (2). Three of her goals have been game winners, which ranks third in the Big 12, and she has added three assists after leading OSU with five in 2012.
Shutouts and Scores
OSU has established itself as one of the top defensive programs in the country. The Cowgirls led the Big 12 in shutouts in five of the last seven seasons (2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011), recording 74 shutouts in 146 games during that span, and had six shutouts in 20 games a year ago.
In 2011, OSU led the NCAA with 18 shutouts and a 0.337 goals against average, and the Cowgirls' .922 save percentage ranked as the fourth-best in a single season in NCAA history.
The Cowgirls don't just thrive on defense. They also led the Big 12 in goals scored in two of the last five seasons (74 in '08 and 52 in '10), and they were second in the league with 56 goals in 2011.
Big Shoes To Fill
OSU lost six players off last season's squad and among them were some of the best Cowgirls to ever wear the orange and black. The group of Kassie Embrey, AD Franch, Alicia Gray, Keely Kippenberger, Megan Marchesano, Carson Michalowski and Casey Smith finished the season as the sixth-winningest senior class in the NCAA in 2012. The Cowgirls were 68-19-9 (.755) over their four seasons, and no other Big 12 team won more games during that span.
Franch was a three-time All-American at goalie and one of only seven players in Big 12 history to earn first-team all-conference honors four times. She finished her career with a school-record 38 shutouts.
Marchesano finished her career ranked in the top 10 on OSU's all-time list in goals, assists, points and shots, while Michalowski was a three-time All-Big 12 defender who helped the Cowgirls notch 48 shutouts in the 93 games she played.
