Cowgirl Soccer Set To Host Bedlam Friday Night

October 23, 2019 | Cowgirl Soccer

Game Notes

#13 Oklahoma State (12-1-3, 5-1-1)
vs. Oklahoma (8-6-3, 3-3-1)

Fri., Oct. 25 • 7 p.m. • Stillwater, Okla.
Neal Patterson Stadium (2,500)

Video/TV: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ (espn.com/watch/espnplus/)
Radio: Pete 94.3 FM & stillwaterradio.net
Live Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
Twitter In-Game Updates: @CowgirlFC

About Oklahoma State
   • Winners of five in a row, Oklahoma State hosts Bedlam-rival Oklahoma in its lone match this week Friday night at Neal Patterson Stadium. The Cowgirls are 12-1-3 overall and atop the Big 12 standings with a 5-1-1 conference mark.
   • The Cowgirls are coming off a 10-7-1 season in 2018 that included a 2-6-1 mark in Big 12 Conference play as they finished ninth in the league. OSU failed to make the postseason for the first time since 2005.
   • OSU opened last season 10-1-0 and climbed to No. 12 in the national rankings. After a tie at home against No. 6 Texas, the Cowgirls — who were hit hard by key injuries — dropped their final six games.
   • The Cowgirls return 15 letterwinners from 2018, including nine players who started at least 10 games.
   • The 2019 season is the 24th in program history; over the first 23 years, OSU posted a 273-161-51 (.605) record. Head coach Colin Carmichael entered his 15th season at the helm in 2019 with a 190-81-38 mark.

Winning Is A Habit
            Now in its 24th season, Oklahoma State soccer has built itself into an established winner.
   • OSU has earned a berth in the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship 10 of the last 13 years (beginning in 2006) and four of the last six.
   • 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). The Cowgirls also won a regular season title in 2017.

This Week's Opponent
   • Oklahoma is 8-6-3 overall and in sixth in the Big 12 standings at 3-3-1. Senior Kaylee Dao leads the Sooners with a Big 12-best 13 goals.
   • OSU is 24-9-4 in the all-time series against the Sooners. The two teams battled to a 2-2 draw in a non-conference meeting in Norman earlier this season on Aug. 30.
   Last 8 Meetings
   2019 - OSU 2, OU 2 (Norman)
2018 - OU 2, OSU 1 (Norman)
   2018 - OSU 2, OU 1 (Stillwater)
   2017 - OSU 2, OU 1 (Kansas City/Big 12 Championship 1st Round)
   2017 - OSU 4, OU 1 (Stillwater)
   2017 - OSU 2, OU 1 (Norman)
   2016 - OU 2, OSU 0 (Stillwater)
   2016 - OU 1, OSU 0 (Norman)

Quick Kicks
   • OSU is tied for the Big 12 lead with eight shutouts and has allowed just 11 goals, the second fewest in the conference. The Cowgirls' 0.66 goals against average also ranks second in the league.
   • The Cowgirls lead the Big 12 with 39 goals and 107 points and are second with 96 corner kicks.
   • Jaci Jones' nine assists tops the league and ranks 11th nationally. Her 21 points is fourth in the Big 12.
   • Two Cowgirls rank in the top 10 in the league in goals — Grace Yochum (second with 11 goals) and Jaci Jones (ninth with six goals).
   • OSU has three players in the top 10 in the Big 12 in assists — Jaci Jones (first with nine assists), Olyvia Dowell (fourth with six assists) and Kim Rodriguez (eighth with five assists).

Home Sweet Home
   OSU is 7-0-1 on its home field in 2019 and did not allow a goal in its first five home matches. A year ago, the Cowgirls finished with a 5-4-1 mark in their first season at Neal Patterson Stadium.
   The Cowgirls were 9-0-1 on their home field in 2017, which marked the sixth time in program history they have gone undefeated at home. OSU went 84-16-10 (.809) at the Cowgirl Soccer Complex from 2008-17 and was 142-40-17 (.756) all time on its former home turf.

Veteran Presence
   Five seniors dot the OSU roster, and that group — Elise Hawn, Claire Gantzer, Jaci Jones, Julia Lenhardt and Kirsten Siragusa — has combined for 359 games of experience, which includes 288 starts.

Road Rarity
   Oklahoma State's 2-1 win in double overtime at No. 6 Penn State marked just the fifth time in program history the Cowgirls have beaten a top-10 ranked team on the road.
2018   2-1 (2 OT) at No. 6 Penn State
2017   2-1 (OT) at No. 8 Texas
2007   2-1 (OT) at No. 5 Missouri; 2-1 (OT) at No. 9 Notre Dame
2006   1-0 at No. 10 Texas

Preseason Pub
   • Oklahoma State was picked to finish seventh in the 2019 Big 12 Conference standings in a preseason vote of the league's head coaches.
   • Junior defender Kim Rodriguez was named to the 2019 Preseason All-Big 12 Team and listed at No. 90 on the TopDrawerSoccer.com Women's National Top 100 players for college soccer 2019.

In The Rankings
This week marked OSU's sixth consecutive week in the national rankings and also the Cowgirls' highest ranking of 2019 as they checked in at No. 13 in the United Soccer Coaches poll. They also occupy the top spot in the United Soccer Coaches Midwest Region rankings.
OSU also came in at No. 22 in this week's official NCAA RPI. The Big 12 is currently the No. 4 conference in the RPI.

Game Recognize Game
   The Cowgirls have earned a number of weekly awards during the 2019 including:
   • Olyvia Dowell - Big 12 Freshman of the Week, Aug. 27
   • Kim Rodriguez - Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week, Sept. 10
   • Grace Yochum - Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week, Sept. 24
   • Elise Hawn - TopDrawerSoccer.com Women's Team of the Week, Oct. 15
   • Grace Yochum - United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division I Women's Player of the Week; Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week; TopDrawerSoccer.com Women's Team of the Week, Oct. 22

Scoring Early & Often
   With career highs of six goals and nine assists through 16 games in 2019, senior Jaci Jones has surpassed the best scoring season of her career, racking up 21 points. Jones' six goals tops the five she had as a freshman in 2016, while the nine assists surpasses the six of her freshman season.

That Was Quick
   Gabriella Coleman recorded the fastest goal in Oklahoma State history when she found the back of the net just 18 seconds into the match against Oral Roberts on Sept. 1.
   Robin Rampey held the previous mark with a goal 45 seconds in against Southwest Missouri State in OSU's inaugural season in 1996.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation
   Kim Rodriguez earned All-Big 12 and All-South Region honors in 2018 following a sophomore season in which she tied for the OSU team lead in scoring with 14 points on four goals and a team-high six assists. The defender started all 18 games for the Cowgirls and also led the team with 1,608 minutes played.
   But Rodriguez is not just a standout for the Cowgirls.
   After shining at the youth level for Mexico's national teams and playing in the 2014 and 2016 FIFA U-17 World Cups and the 2018 FIFA U-20 World Cup, Rodriguez was selected for the Mexico National Team in February 2019 and earned her first-career cap as a starter against Italy at the 2019 Cyprus Women's Cup.
   Most recently, Rodriguez played for Mexico at the 2019 Pan American Games, scoring her first-career goal vs. Panama and helping Mexico to a fifth-place finish at the games.

Fitting Right In
   A pair of new faces has added punch to the Cowgirls' offensive attack in 2019.
   Freshman Olyvia Dowell is third on the team with 14 points on the strength of four goals and six assists, while her 43 shots are a team high. Dowell is listed at No. 26 on the TopDrawerSoccer.com Midseason Women's Freshmen Top 100.
   After two seasons at Mississippi State, where she scored three goals and tallied five assists in 32 games, Gabriella Coleman transferred to OSU in 2019. In 16 games this season, she has five goals, including three in Big 12 play, and her 31 shots is second on the team.

Sharing The Wealth
   OSU ranks 10th nationally with 39 goals on the season. Nine different Cowgirls have scored goals in 2019, with six of those tallying three or more goals.

Sophomore Surge
   On the heels of a strong freshman season, Grace Yochum has established herself as one of the Big 12's top players in her second year in a Cowgirl uniform.
   • Yochum leads OSU and is tied for second in the Big 12 with 11 goals.
   • Yochum's 11 goals are the most ever by a Cowgirl sophomore.
   • The 11 goals are the most by an OSU player since Courtney Dike had 13 in 2013.
   • With three multi-goal games this season, including a hat trick vs. Iowa State, Yochum is the first Cowgirl since Dike in '13 to have three multi-goal games in a season. Only two players in OSU history have had four multi-goal games in a season — Jolene Schweitzer (2003) and Robin Rampey (1996).
   • Yochum enters Friday's Bedlam contest having scored a goal in four consecutive games.
   A year ago, Yochum was named to the 2018 Big 12 All-Freshman Team and also came in at No. 53 on the TopDrawerSoccer.com Postseason Women's Freshmen Top 100 rankings. She played in all 18 games with 17 starts as a freshman and tied for third on the Cowgirls with four goals while ranking fourth with nine points.

Hat's Off
   Grace Yochum became the 12th player in OSU history to record a hat trick when she netted all three goals for the Cowgirls in a 3-0 victory at Iowa State last week.
   Yochum's hat trick was the first by a Cowgirl since Taylor Olson achieved the feat in 2017.

Dani D
   Dani Greenlee is among the top Big 12 goalkeepers statistically as she ranks second in save percentage (.814), third in goals-against average (0.62) and fourth in shutouts (4).
   Greenlee ranks ninth on OSU's career saves list with 74, and her current goals-against average of 0.81 is fourth all time in program history.

International Stage
   A number of OSU standouts have gone on to represent their respective countries as members of national teams, including two Cowgirls — AD Franch and Courtney Dike — who have been on FIFA World Cup rosters.
   Franch has been a member of the United States Women's National Team since 2012 and earned her first-career cap in 2019 at the SheBelieves Cup. The former Cowgirl All-American was on the roster of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup champion U.S. squad.
   Dike was the first-ever Oklahoma State player to appear in the World Cup when she earned two caps for Nigeria in 2015, including starting against the eventual champion United States team. Dike was a four-time All-Big 12 Conference forward for the Cowgirls from 2013-16.
   Other Cowgirls who have earned national team status include:
   • Coumba Sow was a starting midfielder for the Switzerland National Team at the 2019 Algarve Cup. Sow was part of the OSU program in 2016 and 2017, scoring three goals in 23 games for the Cowgirls' 2017 Big 12 Conference championship squad.
   • Current Cowgirl and All-Big 12 defender Kim Rodriguez received her first call up to the Mexico National Team in Feb. 2019; she started for Mexico at the 2019 Cyprus Women's Cup and again in the 2019 Pan American Games in Peru.
   • Other OSU players who have competed for national teams include 2003 Cowgirl goalie Kathrin Lehmann (Switzerland) and 2019 freshman forward Peyton Vincze (Wales).