Cowgirl Soccer Takes On Big 12 Champs In Final Road Game Of Season

April 01, 2021 | Cowgirl Soccer

Game Notes (PDF)

#15 Oklahoma State (11-2-1)
at #3 TCU (9-0-1)

Sat., April 3 • 5 p.m. • Fort Worth, Texas
Garvey-Rosenthal Stadium (1,500)

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

About Oklahoma State
   • Winners of eight straight, OSU travels to Fort Worth, Texas, for its final road game of the season Saturday when the 15th-ranked Cowgirls take on No. 3 TCU. OSU is 11-2-1 on the season; the Cowgirls 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
   • TCU claimed the 2020 Big 12 regular season championship in the fall with an 8-0-1 mark; the Horned Frogs are now 9-0-1 on the year and ranked No. 3 nationally.
   • OSU is 6-4-3 in the all-time series against TCU, including a 2-1 overtime loss earlier this season on Oct. 9 in Stillwater.

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.

We're Going Streaking
   OSU's current eight-game winning streak is tied for the fifth longest in program history and is the Cowgirls' longest since 2011.
   A list of the Cowgirls' longest winning streaks:
Winning Streak               Year(s)
15                       2011
10                      2003, 2002
9                        2008
8                        2020-21, 2009

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 leads the Big 12 and ranks seventh nationally with 10 goals in 2020-21, while Dowell is right behind her with nine to rank 13th in the nation.

Scoring In Bunches
   Grace Yochum has established herself as one of the Big 12's top scorers and earned All-Big 12 First Team honors as both a sophomore and junior.
   In 47 career games, Yochum has amassed 25 goals, which is tied for eighth on OSU's all-time list. With potentially two more seasons left after this one due to 2020-21 being a "COVID season," Yochum could challenge the program record of 35 goals held by Yolanda Odenyo and Jolene Schweitzer.
   This season marks Yochum's second straight of reaching double digits in goals as the junior midfielder has found the back of the net 10 times with two regular season games remaining. She is currently on a streak of six consecutive games with a goal, the second such streak of her career, and she leads the NCAA this season with eight game-winning goals.
   In 2019, Yochum led OSU and was fifth in the Big 12 with 11 goals, the most ever by a Cowgirl sophomore and the most by an OSU player since 2013. She posted three multi-goal games, including a hat trick vs. Iowa State, to become the first Cowgirl since '13 to have three games in a season with multiple goals.
   In 2018, Yochum was named to the Big 12 All-Freshman Team after scoring four goals in 18 games.

In The Rankings
   After being peaking at No. 4 during the fall season and finishing at No. 12 in the Nov. 24 poll, OSU is 15th in this week's United Soccer Coaches poll. The Cowgirls have appeared in the national rankings for 26 consecutive weeks dating back to last season, which they ended 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, Sept. 22, March 8 & March 15;
TopDrawerSoccer.com Women's Team of the Week, Sept. 22, March 8 & March 15; United Soccer Coaches D-I Player of the Week, March 9
   • 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 & March 8
   • Kim Rodriguez — TopDrawerSoccer.com Women's Team of the Week, Oct. 27 & March 1;
Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week, March 1 & March 8
   • Hannah Webb — Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week, Nov. 17
   • Alex Morris — Big 12 Freshman of the Week, March 1
   • Charmé Morgan — Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week, March 15
   • Amber Lockwood — Big 12 Freshman of the Week, March 29

Quick Kicks
   • Grace Yochum leads the NCAA in game-winning goals with eight, and her 10 goals rank seventh.
   • Olyvia Dowell, Gabriella Coleman and Grace Yochum each rank in the top 10 in the Big 12 in goals and have combined for 23 of OSU's 28 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, including three this season.
   • Emily Plotz ranks 21st nationally with five shutouts and has 19 shutouts in her career — 14 of those came during her career at Stetson.