Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowgirl Soccer Opens Preseason Practice
August 06, 2014 | Cowgirl Soccer
STILLWATER, Okla. – Oklahoma State held its first preseason practice of 2014 Wednesday morning at the Cowgirl Soccer Complex, and head coach Colin Carmichael liked what he saw from his squad.
“There's a nice buzz around the players — obviously on the first day everybody is excited to be back,” Carmichael said. “We were pleased. They got after it, and the first practice was really good.”
The Cowgirls' roster currently stands at 31, and 10 starters return from last season's 9-7-6 club that made the program's eighth NCAA Tournament appearance, including All-Big 12 performers Natalie Calhoun, Courtney Dike and Allie Stephenson.
Carmichael said he's pleased with the fitness of his squad after summer workouts with OSU strength and conditioning coach Mallory Fowlkes following the end of the spring exhibition season.
“Our group has worked hard with Mallory all summer, and they came in in pretty good shape,” Carmichael said. “I'll have a better gauge on that as we get into preseason, but so far so good. They look like they got after it this summer.”
As for OSU's focus during early practices, Carmichael pointed to two key areas.
“Mentality and defending,” Carmichael said. “We want to be a team that's really tough to play against. I thought that last year we were a little bit easy to play through at times so we're going to work on our defensive mentality and also our shape a little bit defensively. Once we get that down, we'll flip it around to offense.”
The Cowgirls will practice twice a day in the preseason prior to an exhibition game at SMU Aug. 16 in Dallas. OSU opens the regular season Aug. 22 in Norman against Bedlam-rival Oklahoma in a non-conference match.
