Cowgirl Soccer Hits Road For Showdown Of Ranked Teams

March 05, 2021 | Cowgirl Soccer

Game Notes

#16 Oklahoma State (7-2-1) at #17 Saint Louis (5-0-0)

Sat., March 6 • 12 p.m. • Saint Louis, Mo.
Hermann Stadium (6,050)

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

About Oklahoma State
   • OSU returns to action with its first road test of the spring in a showdown of nationally ranked teams Saturday as the No. 16 Cowgirls head north to take on 17th-ranked Saint Louis. OSU is 7-2-1 on the season; SLU is 5-0-0. OSU went 6-2-1 in Big 12 play in the fall, finishing third in the conference 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.

This Week's Opponent
   • SLU owns a 5-0-0 record, including a win last week at No. 7 Arkansas. The Billikens are 86-44-12 in eight seasons under head coach Katie Shields and have made back-to-back NCAA tourney appearances.
   • Junior Emily Groark leads the Billikens with four goals; Anna Walsh has two goals and three assists.
   • OSU won its only previous meeting with SLU, claiming a 2-0 victory in Stillwater in 2019.

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.

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 leads the Big 12 with six goals in 2020-21, while Yochum has five; Coleman recorded goals in each of OSU's first three games of the season.

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 entered 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.

In The Rankings
   After being ranked as high as No. 4 during the fall season and finishing at No. 12 in the Nov. 24 poll, OSU is 16th in the first United Soccer Coaches poll of the spring. The Cowgirls have appeared in the national rankings for 22 consecutive weeks dating back to last season.
   OSU ended the 2019 season ranked as high as 13th in the final polls.

Game Recognize Game
   The Cowgirls have earned weekly awards from various entities numerous times this season, including:
   • 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
   • Olyvia Dowell — Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week, Sept. 29 & March 1; TopDrawerSoccer.com Women's Team of the Week, Sept. 29
   • Kionna Simon — Big 12 Freshman of the Week, Oct. 6
   • Emily Plotz — Big 12 Goalkeeper of the Week, Oct. 27 & March 1
   • Kim Rodriguez — TopDrawerSoccer.com Women's Team of the Week, Oct. 27 & March 1;
Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week, March 1
   • Hannah Webb — Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week, Nov. 17
   • Alex Morris — Big 12 Freshman of the Week, March 1

Quick Kicks
   • OSU's loss to TCU on Oct. 9, 2020 snapped the Cowgirls' undefeated streak in regular season matches at 12. The streak dated back to Sept. 29, 2019, and the Cowgirls were 10-0-2 during that stretch.
   • Olyvia Dowell, Gabriella Coleman and Grace Yochum each rank in the top 10 in the Big 12 in goals and have combined for 14 of OSU's 16 goals this season.
   • Kim Rodriguez moved into ninth on OSU's all-time assists list with a pair of assists against Little Rock. Rodriguez has 19 assists in her career.