Cowgirl Soccer Opens 2020 Season With Bedlam

Game Notes

Oklahoma State (0-0-0)
at Oklahoma (0-0-0)

Fri., Sept. 11 • 7 p.m. • Norman, Okla.
John Crain Field (3,500)

Video/TV: SoonerSports.TV ($ - subscription required)
Radio: Pete 94.3 FM & stillwaterradio.net
Live Stats: sidearmstats.com/oklahoma/wsoc/
Twitter In-Game Updates: @CowgirlFC

About Oklahoma State
   • Oklahoma State opens its 2020 season against Bedlam-rival Oklahoma on Friday night in Norman. The Cowgirls are scheduled to play nine Big 12 Conference matches during the '20 season.
   • The Cowgirls are coming off a championship season in 2019 as they went 16-3-3 overall and claimed the Big 12 Conference regular season title with a 7-1-1 league mark. OSU advanced to the second round of the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship and finished ranked as high as No. 13 nationally.
   • The Cowgirls return 16 letterwinners from 2019, including eight players who started at least 10 games.
   • The 2020 season is the 25th in program history; over the first 24, OSU posted a 289-164-54 (.623) record. Head coach Colin Carmichael entered his 16th season at the helm in 2020 with a 206-84-41 mark.

Winning Is A Habit
     Now in its 25th season, Oklahoma State soccer has built itself into an established winner.
   • OSU has earned a berth in the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship 11 of the last 14 years (beginning in 2006) and five of the last seven.
   • 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 regular season titles in 2017 and 2019.

7th Heaven
                Oklahoma State captured the seventh Big 12 Conference championship in program history with its 2019 regular season title. It marked the fourth regular season crown for the Cowgirls and second in the last three years; OSU also won regular season championships in 2008, 2011 and 2017.
   OSU opened '19 Big 12 play with a loss at Texas Tech before a tie at TCU. Following that opening weekend, the Cowgirls won seven consecutive games to claim the title.

This Week's Opponent
   • Oklahoma is coming off an 8-9-3 season, which included a 3-5-1 mark in Big 12 play. The Sooners are led by first-year head coach Mark Carr.
   • OSU is 26-9-4 in the all-time series against the Sooners, including a 2-0-1 showing in 2019.
   Last 8 Meetings
   2019 - OSU 2, OU 2 (Norman); OSU 3, OU 1 (Stillwater); OSU 2, OU 1 (Kansas City/Big 12 Championship 1st Round)
2018 - OU 2, OSU 1 (Norman); OSU 2, OU 1 (Stillwater)
   2017 - OSU 2, OU 1 (Norman); OSU 4, OU 1 (Stillwater); OSU 2, OU 1 (Kansas City/Big 12 Championship 1st Round)

Milestone
   Colin Carmichael recorded his 200th career win with OSU's 2-0 victory at Texas on Oct. 11, 2019. Carmichael has spent all 16 of his seasons as a head coach in Stillwater.
   Now with 206 career wins, Carmichael ranks third among active Big 12 coaches in wins at their current school, trailing only Nikki Izzo-Brown, who has 352 wins in 24 seasons at West Virginia, and Mark Francis, who has amassed 236 victories in 21 seasons at Kansas.

Award Tour
   OSU had a league-high three players named to the 2020 Preseason All-Big 12 Soccer Team, which was selected by the conference's head coaches.
   Cowgirls Olyvia Dowell, Kim Rodriguez and Grace Yochum each received recognition on the 11-person preseason squad. Texas Tech also had three players on the list.
   In 2019, OSU collected its most all-conference selections in eight years — and its second most all time — while Colin Carmichael was named the league's top coach for a record sixth time.
   Five Cowgirls garnered 2019 All-Big 12 honors, the most for OSU since a program-record seven in 2011. Only three times in school history have five or more Cowgirls earned all-league recognition (2010, '11, '19).
   Earning All-Big 12 First Team honors for OSU last season were Rodriguez, a unanimous selection, and Yochum. Named to the All-Big 12 Second Team were defender Charmé Morgan, midfielder Jaci Jones and Dowell, who also earned a spot on the All-Freshman Team.

Home Sweet Home
   OSU went 10-0-1 on its home field in 2019, the seventh time in program history the Cowgirls have gone undefeated at home in a season. Seven of those wins came via shutout, and OSU did not allow a goal in its first five home matches.
   OSU was 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.

Scoring Punch
   OSU ranked 14th nationally with 50 goals in 2019, averaging 2.27 goals per game, and the Cowgirls return a large part of that production in 2020.
   Six of the Cowgirls top eight goal scorers from a year ago return, with that group accounting for 37 goals. Grace Yochum had a team-high 11 goals last season, while Gabriella Coleman added nine; Olyvia Dowell and Charmé Morgan tallied five apiece.

Preseason Prognostication
   Oklahoma State was picked to finish second in the 2020 Big 12 Conference standings in a preseason vote of the league's head coaches.

Elite Company
   Kim Rodriguez became only the fifth All-American in Cowgirl Soccer history in 2019 when she was named to the United Soccer Coaches All-America Second Team as a defender. She joined a list of OSU All-Americans that included Yolanda Odenyo, Melinda Mercado, AD Franch and Haley Woodard.
   Rodriguez was also a unanimous All-Big 12 First Team selection a year ago as she recorded three goals and seven assists and anchored a defense that posted 10 shutouts and allowed just 18 goals in 22 games.
   In 2018, Rodriguez earned All-Big 12 and All-South Region honors 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.
   Rodriguez enters her final collegiate season having tallied nine goals and 16 assists in 61 matches.
   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.
   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.

Scoring In Bunches
   On the heels of a strong freshman season, Grace Yochum established herself as one of the Big 12's top players in 2019, her second year in a Cowgirl uniform, and earned All-Big 12 First Team honors.
   Despite missing seven games on the season due to injury, including the final six of the year, Yochum:
   • Led OSU and was fifth in the Big 12 with 11 goals;
   • Recorded the most ever goals by a Cowgirl sophomore;
   • Tallied the most goals by an OSU player since Courtney Dike had 13 in 2013.
   • Scored a goal in her final four games of the season
   • Posted three multi-goal games, including a hat trick vs. Iowa State, becoming 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).
   In 2018, Yochum was named to the Big 12 All-Freshman Team and was ranked No. 53 on the TopDrawerSoccer.com Postseason Women's Freshmen Top 100 rankings. She played in all 18 games with 17 starts and tied for third on the Cowgirls with four goals while ranking fourth with nine points.

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Game Notes

Oklahoma State (0-0-0) at Oklahoma (0-0-0) Fri., Sept. 11 • 7 p.m. • Norman, Okla. John Crain Field (3,500)

Players Mentioned

Gabriella Coleman

Olyvia Dowell

Jaci Jones

Kim Rodriguez

Grace Yochum

Related Videos

Oklahoma State (0-0-0)
at Oklahoma (0-0-0)

Fri., Sept. 11 • 7 p.m. • Norman, Okla.
John Crain Field (3,500)