Cowgirl Soccer Set To Battle In-State Foes

Thursday, August 25

Tulsa, OK

7:00 PM

Oklahoma State University

Tulsa

August 24, 2022 | Cowgirl Soccer

Game Notes

Oklahoma State (2-0-0) at Tulsa (1-0-1)

Thurs., Aug. 25 • 7 p.m. • Tulsa, Okla.

Hurricane Stadium (2,000)

Oklahoma (0-1-1) at Oklahoma State (2-0-0)

Sun., Aug. 28 • 7 p.m. • Stillwater, Okla.

Neal Patterson Stadium (2,500)

TV/Video: Thurs. - ESPN+ (Jeremie Poplin)

Sun. - Big 12 Now on ESPN+ (Mike Wolfe & Anna Beffer)

Radio: Stillwater Radio KGFY 105.5 FM/stillwaterradio.net (Bill Van Ness)

Live Stats: okstate.statbroadcast.com

Twitter In-Game Updates: @CowgirlFC

About Oklahoma State

• Oklahoma State is 2-0-0 on the season and has another split week, this time against a pair of in-state foes, as the Cowgirls face a road test at Tulsa on Thursday night before hosting a non-conference Bedlam showdown with Oklahoma Sunday night at Neal Patterson Stadium.

• OSU is coming off a 9-6-3 season in 2021 in which the Cowgirls finished fourth in the Big 12 standings at 4-3-1.

• The Cowgirls return 11 letterwinners from last season, including six starters and a pair of three-time All-Big 12 performers in Grace Yochum and Olyvia Dowell.

• The 2022 season is the 27th in program history; over the first 26, OSU posted a 311-173-59 (.627) record. Head coach Colin Carmichael entered his 17th season at the helm in 2021 with a 228-93-46 mark.

Scouting The Opponents

• Tulsa is 1-0-1 after a pair of road matches to open the season as the Hurricane topped Mid-America Christian in its season opener before battling Kansas City to a 1-1 draw.

• The Hurricane return nine starters from last season's 6-9-2 team, which is led by second-year head coach Jim Rhein.

• OSU is 5-0-0 all time against Tulsa, with the last matchup coming during the 2014 season and resulting in a 2-1 win for the Cowgirls in Stillwater.

• Oklahoma is 0-1-1 after opening the season with a tie at home against Houston before going on the road and falling to Nebraska. The Sooners host Arkansas Thursday before the Bedlam showdown.

• The Sooners are coming off an 8-11-1 season and welcomed 18 newcomers to their roster in 2022. OU is in its third season under head coach Mark Carr, who owns a 9-24-4 career record.

• OSU is 30-9-4 in the all-time series with Oklahoma, and the Cowgirls have won six consecutive matches against the Sooners.

Scoring Punch

OSU returns 65 percent of its goal scoring from last season as six players that combined to score 17 of the Cowgirls' 26 goals are back.

Olyvia Dowell and Grace Yochum tied for the team lead last season with six goals apiece. Ally Jackson found the back of the net twice, while Megan Haines, Mollie Breiner and Summer Chaffin each had a goal.

Middle Motivation

In a preseason vote of the conference's head coaches, OSU was picked to finish fifth in the Big 12 race in 2022.

OSU was one of three teams, along with TCU and Texas, with multiple players on the Preseason All-Big 12 Team as Olyvia Dowell and Grace Yochum earned that distinction. Yochum was the only unanimous selection.

Rare Air

Olyvia Dowell and Grace Yochum have each earned All-Big 12 recognition three times in their careers, becoming just the ninth and 10th players in program history to earn all-conference honors three or more times.

Yochum was named to the All-Big 12 First Team in 2019 and 2021, and she is only the seventh Cowgirl to achieve first-team status multiple times in a career.

Dowell was an All-Big 12 First Team honoree in 2020 and was on the second team in 2019 and 2021.

Only four Cowgirls have been named All-Big 12 four times in a career - Yolanda Odenyo, AD Franch, Courtney Dike and Natalie Calhoun.

Welcome Back

In Grace Yochum and Ally Jackson, Oklahoma State has a pair of players who will be playing their fifth seasons in an OSU uniform. Both are taking advantage of an extra season of eligibility offered by the NCAA due to the COVID-19 pandemic that altered the 2020 season.

Entering the '22 season, the Jackson/Yochum duo has combined to play in 144 career games with 110 starts. Jackson has led the team in minutes played among field players each of the last three seasons.

New Faces

The Cowgirls' 2022 roster counts 12 newcomers, which includes seven freshmen and five Division I transfers.

• Eryka McIntyre and Blythe Beldner transferred to OSU from Missouri, where that duo combined to play in 111 games for the Tigers, while Niah Johnson started 55 games over the last four seasons at Mississippi State and tallied eight goals and three assists.

• Three of OSU's freshmen were named Gatorade Player of the Year in their respective states - Sami Allen (Oklahoma), Gracie Bindbeutel (Missouri) and Jordan Nytes (Colorado). Bindbeutel was a two-time Gatorade state player of the year and was also a three-time United Soccer Coaches High School All-American.

In Her Sights

Grace Yochum has established herself as one of the Big 12's top scorers, and she is chasing history as OSU's all-time leading goal scorer.

In 71 career games, Yochum has amassed 34 goals, which ranks third on OSU's all-time list; she is one away from tying the record of 35 held by Yolanda Odenyo and Jolene Schweitzer.

As a freshman in 2018, Yochum tallied four goals. She followed that with 11 as a sophomore, 12 in 2020 and six last season.

Yochum is also tied for sixth on the Cowgirls' all-time points list with 77. Odenyo tops that list with 90.

Scoring Surge

Olyvia Dowell has added firepower to the OSU attack since stepping on campus in 2019.

With 26 career goals, Dowell is ninth on OSU's all-time list, and with two more points, she will also enter the top 10 in that category.

As a freshman, Dowell recorded five goals and eight assists, and she followed that with an even more impressive showing as a sophomore as she ranked fifth in the NCAA with 31 points on the strength of 12 goals and seven assists. Her 12 goals tied for the Big 12 lead along with teammate Grace Yochum and ranked sixth nationally; the seven assists topped the conference. Dowell's goal total also marked the most ever goals by an OSU sophomore, and the 31 points was the seventh most in a single season in program history.

Dowell tied for the OSU team lead with six goals in 2021, with five of her goals coming in Big 12 play.

She's A Giver

Olyvia Dowell also ranks 10th on OSU's all-time assists list with 18. She has had season assist totals of eight, seven and three in her first three years as a Cowgirl.

Clutch

Grace Yochum and Olyvia Dowell have combined for 24 game-winning goals in their careers, with Yochum notching 17 and Dowell adding seven. Yochum led the NCAA with eight game-winning goals during the 2020 season.

Week ONe WonderS

Olyvia Dowell was named the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week for week one after leading the conference with three goals in the first two games of the season. She also topped the league with nine shots, four of those on goal.

Ally Jackson recorded a pair of assists in the win against Missouri State, which already marks a career high for the fifth-year senior. Her only previous assist came in 2020.

Preseason Love

Grace Yochum is one of 38 players on the United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division I Midfielders to Watch List, and she came in at No. 67 on the TopDrawerSoccer.com Preseason Women's Top 100 Players list.

Jordan Nytes was named to the TopDrawerSoccer.com Preseason Freshman Best XI at goalkeeper.