Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma State University
San Francisco
Trip To Bay Area Up Next For Cowgirl Soccer
September 13, 2017 | Cowgirl Soccer
GAME NOTES
Â#14 Oklahoma State (7-0-1)
at San Francisco (2-4-1)
Fri., Sept. 15 • 9 p.m. CST • San Francisco, Calif.
Negoesco Stadium (1,500)
Âat #15 California (5-1-0)
Sun., Sept. 17 • 1 p.m. CST • Berkeley, Calif.
Edwards Stadium (22,000)
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Oklahoma StateÂ
   Oklahoma State travels to the Bay Area this weekend to put its unbeaten record on the line with road matches at San Francisco Friday night and at No. 15 California on Sunday. The 14th-ranked Cowgirls are 7-0-1 on the season, their best start since 2011 when they went unbeaten in their first 21 matches (19-0-2) en route to a schoo-record 22 wins. OSU's .938 winning percentage this season ranks eighth in the NCAA through the first month of the season.
   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.Â
About The Opponents
   San Francisco is 2-4-1 on the season with wins over New Mexico and Cal. Among the Dons' losses is a double overtime contest against Texas Tech on a neutral field as well as setbacks against Oregon State at home and at No. 2 Stanford. USF has been outscored 15-6 in its seven matches this season.
   Cal is 5-1-0 on the season, with its lone loss coming at San Francisco, and is ranked as high as No. 15 in this week's national polls. The Golden Bears have scored nine goals on the season, led by Abi Kim's four goals and Miranda Nild's three goals and an assist. Cal hosts Oklahoma Friday night.
On The Air & The WebÂ
   Fans wishing to follow this weekend's matches can do so in a variety of ways. A free live video stream of Friday's match at San Francisco airs at www.wccsports.com, and live stats will be available for both matches via links atÂ
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.Â
ÂWinning 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.Â
   • From 2008-11, OSU celebrated four consecutive Big 12 championships — two regular season (2008, '11) and two tournament ('09, '10).
Back In the Saddle
   OSU returns 18 letterwinners from 2016, including eight who started at least 10 games for the Cowgirls.
   Five of OSU's top six scorers from a year ago — Jaci Jones, Haley Woodard, Marlo Zoller, Julia Lenhardt and Anna Beffer — are once again in the fold in 2017. That group combined for 20 goals and 16 assists last season.
Preseason Prognostications
   In preseason voting by the league's head coaches, OSU was picked to finish sixth in the Big 12 Conference standings behind five-time defending league champion West Virginia, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Baylor. Rounding out the list were TCU, Texas, Iowa State and Kansas State.
Home Sweet Home
   The Cowgirls are 5-0-0 on their home field in 2016. OSU is 80-16-9 (.805) at the Cowgirl Soccer Complex since 2008 and is 138-40-16 (.753) all time on its current home turf.Â
New Faces
   Eleven newcomers joined OSU's 32-player roster in 2017, and the group includes nine freshmen, a redshirt freshman and a Division I transfer. Nine of the newcomers have seen action through the first eight games.
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, OSU is No. 14 in the United Soccer Coaches poll and is ranked 24th by TopDrawerSoccer.com.
Scoring & Sharing The Love
   • OSU's 25 goals in 2017 have been recorded by 12 different players, and six of those Cowgirls scorers have notched the first goals of their careers. Eight players have multiple goals on the year.
   • OSU ranks fourth nationally in goals and seventh in scoring offense at 3.13 goals per game.
   • The Cowgirls lead the Big 12 with 63 corner kicks and have scored four goals directly off corner kicks this season.
Nation's Best
   Anna Beffer enters the weekend with a NCAA-leading eight assists, which already marks her career high. The senior has recorded assists in six matches, including two-assist efforts vs. UMKC and UTSA. The eight assists ranks as the 10th most in a single season in OSU history, and she now has 17 in her career to also rank 10th 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 four weeks into the season, she is one of the top goal scorers in the Big 12.
   Playing wingback in OSU's new 3-4-3 system, Morgan has recorded three 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 ranks ninth nationally.
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 14 shutouts and fourth with 219 saves, and her 1.13 goals against average is fourth all time. 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.
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.
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Big 12's Best
   Three Cowgirls have earned conference honors for their play in 2017. Charmé Morgan was the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week on Aug. 29, while Kim Rodriguez (Aug. 29) and Taylor Olson (Sept. 5) have collected Big 12 Freshman of the Week accolades.
   Morgan picked up her honor after recording goals in wins over OU and Creighton, while Rodriguez notched her first-career goal at OU and tallied the first assist of her career in the match against Creighton. Olson recorded a hat trick against UTSA, marking the first Cowgirl to score three goals in a game since 2011.
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 the Cowgirl Soccer program.
   With completion planned for the fall of 2018, the new home of OSU soccer 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.
   Another additional 900 seats will remain on the east side of the stadium, where they have been located since the program was launched.
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.
