Oklahoma State University Athletics
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Cowgirls Look To Add Big 12 Tourney Title To Resumé
October 30, 2017 | Cowgirl Soccer
Game Notes
#1-seed Oklahoma State (15-2-2)
at the
Big 12 Soccer Championship
Wed., Nov. 1-Sun., Nov. 5 • Kansas City, Mo.
Children's Mercy Victory Field at Swope Soccer Village
Oklahoma State
The freshly-crowned 2017 Big 12 Conference champion, Oklahoma State looks to add a postseason tourney title to its resumé when it travels to Kansas City for this week's Big 12 Soccer Championship.The Cowgirls completed the regular season with a 15-2-2 overall record that included an 8-1-0 conference mark, and OSU carries a five-game winning streak to Kansas City. The Cowgirls' 15 wins are the most by an OSU team since the 2011 squad finished with a school-record 22; the eight conference wins tied the 2006 and 2010 teams for the most in program history.
OSU is coming off a 2016 season in which it compiled a 9-9-3 record and was awarded an NCAA Tournament berth for the third time in the last four seasons. The Cowgirls also finished tied for fifth in the Big 12 Conference standings with a 3-4-1 mark. OSU returns eight starters and 18 letterwinners from last season, including five of their top six scorers.
The 2017 season marks the 22nd in the history of the OSU women's soccer program; over their first 21 seasons the Cowgirls compiled a 238-141-44 (.615) record. OSU has earned a berth in the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship in nine of the last 11 years, and head coach Colin Carmichael entered his 13th season at the helm with a 164-70-34 mark.
Cowgirls At The Big 12 Soccer Championship
OSU is 15-9-3 all time at the Big 12 Soccer Championship and has won a conference tournament title three times, the last coming in 2010. The Cowgirls' first tourney championship came in 2003 (3-2 double overtime triumph vs. Missouri), and OSU celebrated back-to-back titles in 2009 (1-0 over Texas A&M) and 2010 (won PK shootout vs. Oklahoma after 1-1 tie). Last season, OSU was the tourney's No. 6 seed and lost in the opening round to third-seeded Baylor, 1-0; the Cowgirls have not advanced past the first round since 2013 when they lost in the tourney final.
OSU's all-time records against the teams in Kansas City are: West Virginia (0-8-0), TCU (6-2-2), Texas (11-10-6), Baylor (11-11-3), Kansas (11-9-4), Texas Tech (15-6-4) and Oklahoma (22-8-3).
If OSU wins its opening-round match against Oklahoma Wednesday at 11:30 a.m., the Cowgirls will advance to Friday's semifinals to face the winner of No. 4-seed Texas and No. 5-seed Baylor at 4:30 p.m. The title match is Sunday at 3 p.m.
On The Air & The Web
Fans wishing to follow OSU at the Big 12 Championship can do so in a variety of ways. The Big 12 Digital Network will stream all first round and semifinal matches live on www.Big12Sports.com, while the title game airs live on FS1. All OSU games will be broadcast live on Stillwater Radio KGFY 105.5 FM with Bill Van Ness on the call. Live stats will be available via a link at www.okstate.com (link 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
Now in its 22nd season, Oklahoma State soccer has built itself into an established winner.
• OSU has earned a berth in the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship nine of the last 11 years (beginning in 2006) and three of the last four.
• 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).
Big 12's Best
Oklahoma State was picked to finish sixth in the 2017 Big 12 Conference standings in a preseason vote of the league's head coaches, but the Cowgirls proved those predictions wrong by winning the sixth Big 12 championship in program history and first since 2011.
In tying the program record with eight conference wins, OSU finished Big 12 play 8-1-0 to claim the third regular season title in its history and end West Virginia's five-year reign atop the league. The Cowgirls previously won regular season Big 12 titles in 2008 and 2011.
Award Tour
Oklahoma State is well represented on the 2017 All-Big 12 Awards. Junior forward Haley Woodard was named the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year and an All-Big 12 First Team performer, while Colin Carmichael collected Big 12 Coach of the Year honors for the fifth time. Joining Woodard on the All-Big 12 First Team was midfielder Anna Beffer, while Laurene Tresfield was named an All-Big 12 Second Team defender. Kim Rodriguez and Camy Huddleston were selected for the Big 12 All-Freshman Team.
Home Sweet Home
The Cowgirls are 9-0-0 on their home field in 2017. OSU is 84-16-9 (.812) at the Cowgirl Soccer Complex since 2008 and is 142-40-16 (.758) all time on its current home turf.
It's Good To Be Back
After starting the season with a 4-0-0 record, OSU entered the national rankings for the first time in five years on Aug. 29 when the Cowgirls checked in at No. 19 in the United Soccer Coaches poll. The last time OSU had appeared in the rankings was Oct. 1, 2012, when it was No. 22 in the NSCAA poll.
This week marks the 10th straight that OSU has been nationally ranked; the Cowgirls are No. 24 in the United Soccer Coaches poll and are ranked 15th by TopDrawerSoccer.com and 15th by Soccer America.
Scoring & Sharing The Love
• OSU's 42 goals in 2017 have been recorded by 13 different players, and six of those Cowgirls scorers have notched the first goals of their careers. Twelve players have multiple goals on the year.
• The Cowgirls lead the Big 12 and rank among the NCAA leaders in goals, points (117) and scoring offense (2.21 gpg).
• OSU has taken 119 corner kicks on the season and has scored six goals directly off corner kicks.
Leading The Attack
In forward Haley Woodard, the Cowgirls have one of the Big 12's top attacking players. The junior tied for the league lead with four goals and nine points in conference play; her seven goals are tied for the league lead with her 19 points ranking fourth.
Woodard has played in only 14 games this season due to injury and is averaging a Big 12-best 0.50 goals per game. She has racked up 16 goals in 48 games in her three seasons in a Cowgirl uniform.
Sharing The Wealth
Anna Beffer enters the week in the top 10 in the NCAA with 10 assists, which marks her career high. The senior has recorded assists in eight matches, including two-assist efforts vs. UMKC and UTSA. The nine assists ranks as the fifth most in a single season in OSU history, and she now has 19 in her career to also rank seventh on the program's all-time list.
Trying Something New
Charmé Morgan played nearly 1,100 minutes in 20 games as a freshman in 2016 and recorded just three shots and no goals. Fast forward to 2017, where she is among the Cowgirls' top scorers.
Playing wingback in OSU's new 3-4-3 system, Morgan has recorded four goals, two of those game winners, and she was named the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week on Aug. 29 after scoring goals vs. OU and Creighton.
Setting 'Em Up
Jaci Jones finished her freshman season with four assists. Four games into her sophomore campaign, she had already matched that total as she scored a point in each of OSU's first four contests, recording four assists over the Cowgirls' first three games before netting her first goal of 2017 vs. Creighton. She now has five assists, which is tied for third in the Big 12, and three goals, two of those game winners.
Climbing The Charts
Michela Ongaro is among OSU's all-time statistical leaders in the net. The former walk-on is third on the Cowgirls' career charts with 18 shutouts and ranks fourth with 271 saves and a 1.07 goals against average. Ongaro led the Big 12 with 88 saves in 2016; her career-high total ranked as the eighth most in a single season in program history.
In Big 12-only games this season, Ongaro led the league with a .900 save percentage.
Rare Feat, Quick Work
Freshman Taylor Olson became the 11th different player in OSU history to record a hat trick when she collected three goals at UTSA on Sept. 3. She is the first Cowgirl to score three goals in a game since Krista Lopez set a school record with four against Arkansas-Little Rock in 2011; the feat has been accomplished 16 times in program history.
Olson achieved her hat trick in a span of just 6:43 as she scored at the 74:51, 77:58 and 81:34 marks.
Big Boots To Fill
The Cowgirls lost eight letterwinners from their 2016 squad, including All-Big 12 performers Courtney Dike and Natalie Calhoun. In that duo, OSU must replace two of only four players in program history to earn All-Big 12 honors four times.
Dike is one of the most prolific scorers to ever play for the Cowgirls. She ranks third on OSU's career points list with 83, fourth on the career goals list with 31 and fifth with 21 assists. She capped her career by being named the 2016 Big 12 Co-Offensive Player of the Year as a senior.
In Calhoun, the Cowgirls lost one of the league's top defenders and a player who anchored a unit that recorded 26 shutouts over the last four years. The center back played in all 83 of OSU's games during her career and was a starter in 82 of those, and she ranked either first or second in minutes played among field players each of her four seasons.
New Home For Cowgirl Soccer
In the spring of 2017, construction began on a new stadium for Cowgirl Soccer. With completion planned for the fall of 2018, OSU's new home is a $20 million project and is located on the current site of the Cowgirl Soccer Complex.
The new facility will be a showcase for college soccer with club seats, plaza and upper bowl gathering areas and a north end zone terrace area and seating designed specifically for OSU students. Team facilities include locker rooms, meeting areas, kitchen facilities, sports medicine areas and equipment rooms. The stadium will be able to accommodate more than 3,500 fans in permanent seats.
The west side of the stadium will include 552 bleacher seats, 659 chairback seats and 432 stadium seats in the lower bowl. The upper bowl will feature another 378 chairback seats and 164 stadium seats.
Atop the west side of the stadium will be two club levels with a capacity of 80 and two suites with a capacity of 20 guests each. A new press box will sit atop the stadium.
The west side will be anchored by a club area at field level that can host more than 100 and serve as a player lounge and nutrition area on non-game days.
The north end zone includes bleacher seating for more than 400 and will include a patio, a building and a concourse area that can host more than 125 for gatherings.
The current bleachers on the east side of the stadium, which include seating for 900 fans, will remain in the new facility.
Remembering Neal
The major benefactor of the new and under construction Cowgirl Soccer stadium is Oklahoma State alumnus Neal Patterson, who passed away in July at the age of 67. Throughout the 2017 season, the Cowgirls' uniforms will include a patch of Patterson's initials — NP — sewn onto the sleeve to honor his memory.
An Oklahoma native who grew up on his family's farm near Manchester, Patterson earned a bachelor's degree in finance and an MBA from OSU in the early 1970s. In 1979, he co-founded the Cerner Corporation and served as the company's CEO at the time of his death. Cerner is the world's largest publicly traded health information technology company with $4.8 billion in revenues in 2016 and approximately 24,000 associates worldwide. FORTUNE recently named Cerner one of the world's most admired companies.
Patterson was also one of five principal owners of the Sporting Kansas City Major League Soccer franchise. The group adopted the Sporting Kansas City brand in 2010 and was instrumental in opening Children's Mercy Park, a soccer-specific stadium that helped turn around the Kansas City franchise. The venue has seen 97 consecutive MLS sellouts.
