Cowgirl Soccer Begins Spring Schedule Sunday

February 27, 2021 | General, Cowgirl Soccer

Game Notes

Little Rock (4-5-3)
at #12 Oklahoma State (6-2-1)

Sun., Feb. 28 • 1 p.m. • Stillwater, Okla.
Neal Patterson Stadium (650)

TV/Video: None
Radio: None
Live Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com
Twitter In-Game Updates: @CowgirlFC

About Oklahoma State
   • No. 12 Oklahoma State begins its seven-game 2021 spring schedule Sunday at home against Little Rock. The Cowgirls went 6-2-1 in Big 12 Conference play in the fall, finishing third in the league standings.
   • 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
   • Led by third-year head coach Mark Foster, Little Rock is 4-5-3 on the season.
   • Senior forward Doro Greulich leads Little Rock with four goals.
   • OSU is 7-0-0 in the all-time series against the Trojans. The last meeting came in 2016 in Stillwater, with the Cowgirls claiming a 1-0 victory.

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.

High Five
   For the second consecutive season, Oklahoma State had five players selected as All-Big 12 Conference performers while a pair of Cowgirl freshmen were also honored.
   Earning 2020 All-Big 12 First Team honors for the Cowgirls were defender Kim Rodriguez and forward Olyvia Dowell, while defender Charmé Morgan, midfielder Grace Yochum and forward Gabriella Coleman were named to the All-Big 12 Second Team.
   Additionally, defender Kionna Simon and midfielder Grace Dennis were chosen for the Big 12 All-Freshman Team, with Simon being a unanimous selection.
   OSU's five All-Big 12 honorees marks just the fourth time in program history five or more Cowgirls have garnered all-conference recognition and is tied for the second-highest total in school history. A program-record seven Cowgirls earned All-Big 12 status in 2011 while OSU previously had five All-Big 12 performers in 2010 and 2019.
   Rodriguez earned All-Big 12 First Team accolades for the second consecutive season, and the senior is now a three-time all-conference performer in her career. Both distinctions place her in rare company – she is only the sixth player in OSU history to earn first-team status twice or more in a career, and she is just the eighth Cowgirl to be named all-conference three or more times.

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.
   Now in their third season at NPS, the Cowgirls have compiled a 19-5-1 overall record (.780), including a 4-1-0 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. Dowell and Yochum lead OSU with four goals in 2020-21, while Coleman tallied goals in each of OSU's first three games of the season.