Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowgirls Open Big 12 Play At Home
September 25, 2013 | Cowgirl Soccer
Sept. 25, 2013
OSU Game Notes - West Virginia & Texas Tech
Oklahoma State (4-2-3)
vs. #18 West Virginia (6-2-2)
Friday, Sept. 27 • 7 p.m.
Cowgirl Soccer Complex (1,450)
...
vs. #14 Texas Tech (9-1-0)
Sunday, Sept. 29 • 1 p.m.
Cowgirl Soccer Complex (1,450)
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State opens Big 12 Conference play this weekend in Stillwater as the Cowgirls host 18th-ranked West Virginia Friday at 7 p.m. before a Sunday showdown against No. 14 Texas Tech at 1 p.m. OSU brings a 4-2-3 record into the weekend and is coming off a 2-1 overtime win at North Texas.
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 Opponents
West Virginia brings a 6-2-2 mark into conference play. The Mountaineers lead the Big 12 with 25 goals, and senior Frances Silva paces the conference with 21 points (6 goals, 9 assists). OSU's lone meeting with WVU came last season in Morgantown, with Silva scoring in the 89th minute to give the Mountaineers a 1-0 win.
Texas Tech entered the week with the Big 12's best record at 9-1-0 prior to a Friday night contest at Iowa State. The Red Raiders have racked up 24 goals on the year to go along with a Big 12-best eight shutouts. OSU is 12-6-1 all time against TTU but suffered a 2-0 loss in Lubbock a year ago.
On The Air & The Web
Fans wishing to follow this weekend's matches can do so in a variety of ways. Live stats for both matches will be available at www.okstate.com (link is under Schedule). Live webcasts with audio are also available for a fee on okstate.com. Sunday's game will also be broadcast live on Stillwater Radio KGFY 105.5 with Bill Van Ness on the call.
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 2006-2011, 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, the program 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 on Sept. 2, 2011, OSU head coach Colin Carmichael notched his 100th career victory. In his ninth season at the helm, Carmichael sports a career mark of 131-37-25 (.744).
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 are 2-1-1 on their home field last season. OSU is 35-2-5 (.893) at the Cowgirl Soccer Complex since 2010, and the Cowgirls sport a 53-4-5 record (.895) on their home field since 2008. They are 111-28-12 (.775) all time on their current home field.
Young Guns
OSU's 25-player roster includes just six upperclassmen, only two of them seniors (Kristen Kelley and Bethany Fields), while 19 players are either freshmen (10), redshirt freshmen (2) or sophomores (7).
Of OSU's regular starting 11, nine are either freshmen or sophomores, and in last Sunday's match at North Texas, the Cowboys 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 freshman Krissi Killion, Courtney Dike, Natalie Calhoun and Joanna Robertson having cracked the starting lineup.
Freshmen have accounted for nine of OSU's 16 goals and five of its 11 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 67 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.
RPI Talk
The first official NCAA RPI was released earlier this week, and OSU came in at No. 33. The Cowgirls own the second-highest RPI in the Big 12 behind only No. 31 Texas Tech.
Freshman Phenom
Cowgirl freshman Courtney Dike has quickly established herself as a prolific scorer at the collegiate level. In her first nine games, the forward from Edmond, Okla., has recorded a pair of two-goal performances — vs. Vanderbilt and Oklahoma — and leads the Big 12 with seven goals while ranking second with 16 points. Of her 32 shots — which ranks fifth in the league — 16 of those have been on goal. On Sept. 3, she was named the Big 12 Offensive Player and Newcomer of the Week and the College Sports Madness Big 12 Player of the Week after recording three goals and an assist in wins against OU and Gonzaga.
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. Nine games into her sophomore season, the midfielder already has three goals and has surpassed her assist total from a year ago with three. Of her three goals, two have been game winners (vs. UT Martin and Gonzaga), a total that is tied for second most in the Big 12.
Fellow sophomore midfielder Allie Stephenson has also stepped up her production this season, with her four goals already doubling her total of a year ago. She also leads OSU with three assists after recording a team-high five as a rookie.
Out To Prove Them Wrong
In a vote of the conference's head coaches, OSU was picked to finish fourth in the Big 12 this season. West Virginia is the favorite, followed by Texas Tech and Baylor.
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.
