Friday, August 19

Athens, GA

6:00 PM

Oklahoma State University

Georgia

Cowgirl Soccer Opens Season In Georgia

August 17, 2016 | Cowgirl Soccer

Oklahoma State

at Georgia

Fri., Aug. 19 • 6 p.m. (CST) • Athens, Ga.

Turner Soccer Complex (1,750)

at Mercer

Sun., Aug. 21 • Noon (CST) • Macon, Ga.

Bear Field (500)

GAME NOTES

Oklahoma State

Oklahoma State opens its 2016 campaign with a road trip to The Peach State as the Cowgirls kick off the season Friday at 6 p.m. (CST) against Georgia in Athens, Ga., before traveling to Macon, Ga., to take on Mercer Sunday at noon (CST).

OSU is coming off a season in which it compiled a 9-9-2 record, with the Cowgirls finishing eighth in the Big 12 Conference standings with a 2-4-2 mark.

The Cowgirls return seven starters and 18 letterwinners from last season, including a pair of three-time All-Big 12 performers in forward Courtney Dike and defender Natalie Calhoun.

The 2016 season marks the 21st in the history of the OSU women's soccer program. Over their first 20 seasons, the Cowgirls compiled a 238-141-44 (.615) record, and head coach Colin Carmichael entered his 12th season at the helm with a 155-61-31 mark. The Cowgirls have earned a berth in the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship in seven of the last nine years and have claimed Big 12 titles in four of the last eight seasons.

About The Opponents

Georgia is coming off a 2015 season in which the Bulldogs went 5-12-1 under first-year head coach Billy Lesesne. OSU's first-ever meeting against the Bulldogs came a year ago in Stillwater, with the Cowgirls winning by a 4-0 margin.

Mercer opens the season Friday at Alabama A&M. The Bears are coming off a season in which they finished 9-8-4, including a 2-0 loss to OSU in the 2015 opener in Stillwater. Mercer is led by former OSU assistant Tony Economopoulos, who was on the Cowgirls' coaching staff in 2007 and 2008.

On The Air & The Web

Fans wishing to follow this weekend's matches can do so in a variety of ways. Friday's match is available on SEC Network+ via the WatchESPN app. Live stats will be also available via links at www.okstate.com (links can be accessed via the Schedule tab on the Cowgirl soccer page). Additionally, fans can follow the official OSU Soccer Twitter account, @CowgirlFC, for in-game updates.

Winning Is A Habit

The 2016 season marks the 21st in the OSU program's history and over those two-plus decades, the program has been built into an established winner.

• OSU has earned a berth in the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship eight of the last 10 years (beginning in 2006).

• From 2006-11, the Cowgirls earned six-straight NCAA tourney bids and advanced to at least the second round each time, including back-to-back Elite Eight appearances in 2010 and 2011.

• From 2008-11, OSU celebrated four consecutive Big 12 championships — two regular season (2008, '11) and two tournament ('09, '10).

• 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.

Back In the Saddle

OSU returns seven players who started at least 10 games during the 2015 season. Of the 16 returning letterwinners, 14 are field players, and that group combined for 24 of the Cowgirls' 36 goals a year ago, as well as 18 of its 23 assists.

Preseason Prognostications

In preseason voting by the league's head coaches, OSU was picked to finish fifth in the Big 12 Conference standings behind four-time defending league champion West Virginia, Texas Tech, Oklahom and Baylor. A pair of Cowgirls — forward Courtney Dike and defender Natalie Calhoun — were named to the preseason All-Big 12 team.

Home Sweet Home

The Cowgirls were 6-2-2 on their home field in 2016. OSU is 70-11-9 (.828) at the Cowgirl Soccer Complex since 2008 and is 128-35-16 (.760) all time on its current home turf.

Dynamic duo

Natalie Calhoun and Courtney Dike are already in rare company and could join an elite list in 2016. Both Cowgirls have earned All-Big 12 Second Team honors three times, making them two of only seven OSU players to be named all-conference three times in a career. Only two Cowgirls — Yolanda Odenyo and AD Franch — have achieved All-Big 12 status four times.

Milestone For Carmichael

Oklahoma State head coach Colin Carmichael recorded career win No. 150 on Sept. 18, 2015, against Arizona State. Now in his 12th season as the Cowgirls' head coach, Carmichael has been on the OSU coaching staff since the program's inception in 1996.

New Faces

Twelve newcomers join the OSU roster in 2016, and the group includes 10 freshmen, a sophomore transfer and a junior college transfer.

Three freshmen — defenders Elise Hawn and Charmé Morgan and midfielder Julia Lenhardt — along with JUCO transfer Coumba Sow were in the starting 11 for the Cowgirls' preseason exhibtion win against Texas A&M. Six other newcomers saw action against the Aggies.

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 throughout her career 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. As a juninor, she ranked in the top six in the Big 12 in goals (5), assists (7) and points (17).

Climbing The Charts

Courtney Dike enters her senior season tied for 10th on OSU's career goals list with 21. She needs seven goals to move into the top five, while the all-time record is 35 and held by a pair of Cowgirls — Yolanda Odenyo and Jolene Schweitzer.

With 14 career assists, Dike needs just one to move into OSU's all-time top 10 in that category, while her 56 points are four shy of cracking the top 10.

Junior goalie Michela Ongaro is also among OSU's all-time statistical leaders in the net. The Wisconsin native and former walk-on begins the season fourth on the Cowgirls' career charts with a 1.04 goals against average, and she is sixth in both career shutouts (9) and saves (115).

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. 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.

Her Defense Never Rests

Natalie Calhoun has been an anchor at defender since arriving on campus in 2013. The center back has played in all 63 of OSU's games during her three year career and been a starter in 62 of those, and she has ranked either first or second in minutes played among field players each season. The lone game she did not start was the season opener her freshman season.

A three-time All-Big 12 Second Team performer, Calhoun has played a part in 19 shutouts during her career.