Cowgirl Soccer Hosts West Virginia In Clash Of Top 10 Teams

September 23, 2020 | Cowgirl Soccer

Game Notes

#4 West Virginia (2-0-0)
at #6 Oklahoma State (2-0-0)

Fri., Sept. 25 • 7 p.m. • Stillwater, Okla.
Neal Patterson Stadium (650)

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

About Oklahoma State
   • Sixth-ranked Oklahoma State is back home at Neal Patterson Stadium Friday night to take on No. 4 West Virginia in a matchup of teams tied atop the Big 12 Conference standings with 2-0-0 records. The Cowgirls have wins over Kansas State and Iowa State this 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
   • West Virginia is 2-0-0 on the season with a road win at Iowa State and a home victory over Kansas State. The Mountaineers have outscored their first two opponents by a 6-1 margin.
   • OSU is 1-9-0 in the all-time series against WVU, with nine of the 10 games being decided by one goal. The Cowgirls recorded their first win over the Mountaineers last season in Morgantown with a 2-1 victory.
   Last 3 Meetings
   2019 - OSU 2, WVU 1 (Morgantown)
2018 - WVU 2, OSU 1 (Stillwater)
   2017 - WVU 1, OSU 0 (Morgantown)

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.
   Carmichael entered the 2020 season with 206 career wins, which ranked third among active Big 12 coaches in wins at their current school, trailing only Nikki Izzo-Brown, who opened the season with 352 wins in 24 seasons at West Virginia, and Mark Francis, who amassed 236 victories in his first 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.
   In its third season at NPS, the Cowgirls have compiled a 16-4-1 overall record (.786), including a 1-0-0 mark this season.
   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. Yochum and Coleman have scored goals in each of OSU's first two games in 2020, with their two goals tied for the Big 12 lead.

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.

International Stage
   A number of OSU standouts have gone on to represent their respective countries as members of national teams, including two — 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 current redshirt freshman forward Peyton Vincze (Wales).

In The Rankings
With its appearance in the initial fall 2020 United Soccer Coaches poll this week, OSU extended its streak of appearing in the national rankings to 13 weeks dating back to last season. The Cowgirls are No. 6 in this week's poll.
   OSU ended the 2019 season ranked as high as 13th in the final polls.

Game Recognize Game
   The Cowgirls have earned weekly awards following each of OSU's first two weeks of the season.
   • Ally Jackson — TopDrawerSoccer.com Women's Team of the Week, Sept. 15
   • Grace Yochum — Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week; TopDrawerSoccer.com Women's Team of the Week, Sept. 22

Quick Kicks
   • OSU has gone undefeated in 10 consecutive regular season matches in Big 12 play dating back to Sept. 29, 2019. The Cowgirls are 9-0-1 during that stretch.
   • Gabriella Coleman and Grace Yochum are tied for the Big 12 lead in goals along with West Virginia's Enzi Broussard. Each of them has two goals this season.
   • Cowgirl goalie Emily Plotz is tied with WVU's Maddie Murphy for the Big 12's-best goals against average at 0.50.