The Cowgirls finished last year 14-6-3, tying the third-most victories in program history. With its top three scorers returning, Oklahoma State looks to improve this season. The Cowgirls start the year at SMU on Saturday with their home opener Friday, Sept. 5 against Rice.
It’s going to take more than a preseason ranking to quench the Cowgirl soccer team’s thirst for satisfaction.
The OSU soccer team will start the season ranked 23rd and are picked to finish fourth in the Big 12 this season. This comes after the best two seasons in OSU’s 12-year soccer history.
In 2006, the Cowgirls recorded their first victory in the NCAA Tournament and won again last year when they beat top-10 ranked San Diego in the first round last season. The Cowgirl team lost in the second round in each of these seasons, last year’s loss going to top-seeded UCLA.
Coach Colin Carmichael said his team hopes to build on these seasons.
“We want to compete for a Big 12 Championship,” Carmichael said. “That’s easier said than done sometimes, but that’s one of our goals. We’d also like to advance further into the NCAA Tournament, maybe get into the Sweet 16 and see what happens.”
Senior All-American midfielder Yolanda Odenyo is pleased with the ranking OSU received in the preseason, but stresses the Cowgirls have to back it up.
“It’s definitely an honor to be in the preseason rankings,” Odenyo said. “At the end of the day, though, preseason rankings don’t mean a thing. We look to be much higher by the end of the season. What we need to know is that the other teams pay attention to those things. That way when we go to play other teams, they will know we have that big ‘23’ on our chest.”
Odenyo will be joined this year by Siera Strawser and Kasey Langdon; the three make up the team’s top-3 scorers from last season.
Strawser said this year’s team looks promising.
“I think we’re really excited for the season,” Strawser said. “I think this is the most talent that we’ve had in a long time, and we all work really well as a team, so I think we should hopefully do better this year than we have in the past.”
Some of this talent comes from freshmen Kyndall Treadwell and Melinda Mercado, both of whom started in the exhibition against TCU.
Mercado was a member of the All-State team last year from Sapulpa. Mercado played the entire game for the Cowgirls in the backfield and had a good game, Carmichael said.
Treadwell started in both the Orange and White scrimmage and the TCU exhibition as a forward, and scored a goal in each appearance. Treadwell tallied 62 goals and 37 assists in her high school career in Cleveland, Okla.
The Cowgirls will also return record-setting goalie Erin Stigler. Stigler is a former walk-on, but over the past two seasons she set an OSU record with 15 shutouts. In each year, she has been tied for the Big 12 lead in shutouts.
OSU had a good showing in its exhibition game against TCU, winning 3-1, but OSU will have to battle through the always tough Big 12 schedule, including No. 8 Texas and No. 15 Texas A&M. The Cowgirls are talented and confident toward the upcoming season.
OSU will have its first chance to show off its talent in the Cowgirls first regular-season game Saturday against Southern Methodist University in Dallas at 7 p.m.
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