Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma State University
Baylor
Cowgirls Open Big 12 Play On The Road
September 23, 2015 | Cowgirl Soccer
Oklahoma State (5-4-0)
at Baylor (5-4-1)
Fri., Sept. 25 • 7 p.m. • Waco, Texas
Betty Lou Mays Soccer Field (3,000)
at TCU (6-4-0)
Sun., Sept. 27 • 1 p.m. • Fort Worth, Texas
Garvey-Rosenthal Soccer Stadium (1,500)
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Oklahoma State
Winners of three-straight games, Oklahoma State is 5-4-0 on the season and opens Big 12 Conference play with a pair of road matches this weekend, taking on Baylor Friday night in Waco before a Sunday contest against TCU in Fort Worth.
OSU is coming off a 2014 season in which it earned a spot in the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship for the second-straight season. The Cowgirls compiled a 10-10-1 overall record, which included a 5-2-1 mark and second-place finish in the Big 12 standings.
The Cowgirls return 10 starters and 17 letterwinners from 2014, including four All-Big 12 performers in forwards Courtney Dike and Madison Mercado, midfielder Allie Stephenson and defender Natalie Calhoun.
The 2015 season marks the 20th in the history of the OSU women's soccer program. Over their first 19 seasons, the Cowgirls compiled a 229-132-42 (.620) record, and head coach Colin Carmichael entered his 11th season at the helm with a 146-52-29 mark. The Cowgirls have earned a berth in the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship in seven of the last eight years and have claimed Big 12 titles in four of the last seven seasons.
About The Opponents
Baylor went winless in its first five matches of the season but has won five in a row to improve to 5-4-1. The Bears rank second in the Big 12 with 25 goals, and freshman midfielder Sarah King leads the league with eight assists. OSU is 10-8-3 all time against Baylor. The two teams split a pair of games last season, with the Cowgirls winning the regular season match in Stillwater, 2-0, before BU claimed a 1-0 victory in the opening round of the Big 12 Soccer Championship in Kansas City.
TCU is 6-4-0 on the year and opens Big 12 play Friday at home against Iowa State. TCU junior forward Michelle Prokof is tied for the Big 12 lead with seven goals. OSU is 4-1-2 all time against the Horned Frogs and won last year's game in Stillwater by a 1-0 count.
On The Air & The Web
Live stats for Friday's match can be accessed at www.baylorbears.com, with the link available under the Schedule/Results tab on the soccer page.
Sunday's match at TCU will be televised on FOX Sports Southwest Plus, and live stats will be available at www.gofrogs.com via the Schedule/Results tab on the soccer page.
Milestone For Carmichael
Oklahoma State head coach Colin Carmichael recorded career win No. 150 last week against Arizona State. Now in his 11th season as the Cowgirls' head coach, Carmichael has been on the OSU coaching staff since the program's inception in 1996.
She Shoots, She Scores
Courtney Dike quickly established herself as a prolific scorer at the collegiate level as a freshman in 2013, and she has continued that scoring production for the Cowgirls.
The forward from Edmond, Okla., ranked second in the Big 12 in 2013 with 13 goals and 30 points and earned All-Big 12 Second Team and All-Newcomer Team honors. Her 13 goals tied for the fourth most in a single season in OSU history, three shy of Yolanda Odenyo's record 16, while her 30 points was the eighth highest single-season total all time.
Dike recorded three two-goal performances — vs. Vanderbilt, Oklahoma and Missouri State — which marked the most multi-goal games by a Cowgirl since 2010, and of her 58 shots, 30 of those (52 percent) were on goal. She was named the Big 12 Offensive Player and Newcomer of the Week on two occasions in 2013.
In 2014, Dike recorded three goals, two of them game winners, and three assists in 19 games, and she has three goals and three assists in eight games this season.
Dike's 19 career goals is just two shy of cracking OSU's top 10 list.
The Biggest Stage
Courtney Dike is one of a select few collegiate players who can boast of having played in a Women's World Cup.
Dike earned a pair of caps for Nigeria at the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada last July. Her first came as a reserve in a match against Australia, and in the Super Falcons' final tourney game, Dike was in the starting lineup against the eventual champion United States. She played 50 minutes against the U.S. before subbing out early in the second half.
Dike concluded her first trip to the Women's World Cup playing 56 minutes and recording one shot. Nigeria finished 0-2-1 at the tourney and failed to advance out of Group D.
The experience was historic as Dike became the first OSU player to participate in a World Cup and also the first-ever Oklahoman to compete in a Women's World Cup.
In 2014, Dike was a member of the Nigeria U-20 Women's National Team at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. That trip proved highly successful, though it meant OSU was without its top scorer for the first two games of 2014.
During that tourney, Dike helped the Falconets into the U-20 World Cup final, where they dropped a 1-0 decision to Germany. A starter at forward throughout most of the tourney, Dike recorded a pair of goals in six games. In pool play against South Korea, she scored the fastest goal in FIFA Women's World Cup history as she found the back of the net just 18 seconds into the match, and she scored a goal 64 seconds into the semifinal match against North Korea to help Nigeria advance to the final.
Dike's parents, Vincent and Jacinta, are natives of Nigeria, and her older brother, Bright, is on the country's men's national team.
Senior Scoring Sparks
Two key members of OSU's offensive attack the last several years are back for their senior seasons in 2015. That duo of Allie Stephenson and Madison Mercado has combined for 30 goals and 22 assists in their careers.
Stephenson has started 70 career games and has racked up 15 goals and 12 assists. As a junior, she led OSU's attack as she played a role in nine of the Cowgirls' 22 scores (41 percent). The midfielder recorded six goals — two via penalty kick — and three assists and ranked in the top 10 in the Big 12 in goals, points (15) and shots (60). She led the squad with 23 shots on goal.
Mercado has notched 15 goals and 10 assists in her first three-plus seasons. She has recorded four or more scores every year, and she ranked second in the Big 12 with seven assists as a sophomore in 2013.
The Going Gets Tough
In 2014, OSU's schedule ranked as the second toughest in the NCAA, which helped the Cowgirls finish 34th in the RPI, and the Big 12 ranked as the second-highest RPI conference in the nation a year ago.
Things won't be any easier in 2015 as OSU will face a dozen teams that made the NCAA Soccer Championship last season, including seven in non-conference play. Of the Cowgirls' 18 opponents, four are currently ranked in the national polls — West Virginia (4), Florida (6), Texas Tech (14) and Washington State (24).
New Faces
Only five newcomers joined the OSU roster in 2015, but four of those have become immediate contributors.
Freshmen forwards Marlo Zoller and Haley Woodard have combined for four goals and two assists, while JUCO transfer Christina Jean-Charles has started all nine games and leads the Cowgirls with three assists. Another freshman, Morgan McDougal, has seen action as a reserve in all nine matches.
Scoring & Sharing The Wealth
Through nine games this season, OSU has recorded 17 goals and 12 assists. In 21 games in 2014, the Cowgirls had 22 goals and 15 assists.
Ten different Cowgirls have collected goals in 2015, with five of those having two or more scores, and seven different OSU players have collected assists.
OSU has scored multiple goals in six matches this season, already equaling its total from 2014. A year ago, the Cowgirls did not score more than two goals in a game — they've done it twice this season.
