Sooner Women's Soccer - Season starts on Friday on the Road!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Women's Soccer Team is about ready to start their season. Their first match is on Friday, August 12th in Frisco, TX against Texas State. Their first home match at John Crane Field in Norman is the following Thursday on August 18th against Houston. Both matches are at 7 PM CST.

The season for the Women is a challenging traveling schedule with 12 matches away from home and only 8 matches in Norman. Fortunately, they have 5 home matches in Big 12 play with 4 matches on the road. Their out-of-conference schedule consists of 8 road matches with only 3 home matches. Oklahoma host Houston, Arkansas and SMU at home as part of their O-O-C schedule. In a scheduling nicety, the Sooners play Oklahoma State in Stillwater (Aug. 28th) during their O-O-C schedule and at home (Oct. 6th) as part of the Big 12 matches.

Here is the Sooner Soccer Schedule:

https://soonersports.com/sports/soccer/schedule

The roster is sizable with 32 players. There are 14 new freshman and 4 transfers that are being added to the Sooners for the 2022 Season. The Sooners have lost 19 players from their roster in 2021. the new roster is going to have to get to know each other on the road with their schedule.

There are 4 goalkeepers on the roster.

Olivia Ramey - #0 - FR - Frisco, TX
Makinzie Short - #00 - SR - Transfer from Nebraska
Une Hebnes Georgsen - #1 - SOPH - Stavanger, Norway
Elie Efremsky - #27 - FR - Orinda, CA

With two freshman and 2 upperclassmen, the Sooners have 16 career games setting in the goal. Short, the transfer has the most experience and best GA/Game. She probably gets the early playing time when the season starts unless one of the 2 freshman can earn playing time in practices.

There are 9 defenders or backrow players on the roster.

Hall Hartman - #3 - FR - Grand Prairie, TX
Taylor Hunter - #11 - SR - Transfer from North Texas
Ellie Geoffrey - #16 - FR - Andover, KS
Anna Perry - #17 - SOPH - Broken Arrow, OK
Sheridan Michel - #21 - SOPH - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Muriel Kroflin - #22 - SOPH - Langenargen, Germany
Cassie Clifton - #23 - FR - Prosper, TX
Elizabeth Rapp - #36 - FR - Evergreen, CO
Marianne Baltmanis - #40 - Flower Mound, TX

Among the 4 non-freshmen, there are 31 games of experience for the back row of defenders. Look for Michel and Perry to get early playing time on defense. Freshman may be counted on heavily for quality playing time in front of the goal.

There are 6 midfielders on the roster.

Michelle Pak - #7 - FR - Coppell, TX
Caley England - #8 - JR - Dripping Springs, TX
Kelis Brown - #14 - R-FR - New Albany, OH
Brooke Amos - #18 - SOPH - Transfer from Rogers State
Rami Rapp - #26 - FR - Evergreen, CO
Madi McMahand - #28 - SOPH - Round Rock, TX

The two most experienced midfielders are England and Amos. England had 14 SOG with 1 Goal and 1 Assist last season. Amos had 1 Goal on 6 SOG for Rogers State. The remaining four players will be seeing their first action in 2022 from what I can find. I would look for a light midfield alignment at least early in the season.

There are 13 Forwards on the roster:

Emma Hawkins - #2 - SR - Transfer from Central Arkansas
Hadley Murrell - #5 - FR - Prosper, TX
Bailey Wesco - #9 - SOPH - Midlothian, TX
Alexis Washington - #12 - FR - San Antonio, TX
Bri Amos - #13 - Red-SR - Tulsa, OK
Ella Pappas - #15 - SOPH - Edmond, OK
Zoe McCabe - #19 - FR - Dewey, OK
Chelsea Wagner - #20 - FR - Leawood, KS
Morganne Eikelbarner - #24 - FR - Plano, TX
Andrine Westlie - #25 - Red-FR - Sandvika, Norway
Makala Thomas - #29 - Red-SR - Los Angeles, CA
Leonie Weber - #31 - SOPH - Munich, Germany
Anniston Flake - #34 - Red-FR - Frisco, TX

Six of the forward have scored in their careers. Among the returning Sooner forwards, 4 played in 20 games last season with Amos, Pappas, Wesco and Weber with 6, 2, 1 and 3 goals respectively. A fifth returning Sooner, Thomas, played in 16 games last season. The forward on the team with the most goals last season is the Central Arkansas transfer, Hawkins. She scored 15 goals in 18 games last season. With 5 freshman and 2 other forwards on the roster, the bulk of the playing time will go to the experienced 6 players mentioned above. I wonder if one or two might move to the midfield to help in that area of the field.

The Sooners will be pressed to score in 2022 with limited goal scorers on the team as only 1 player had over 6 goals last season. The Sooners are also trying to make up for 16 goals and 13 assists that have left the team in the offseason. It will be interesting to see if the Sooners play a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-4 alignment this season or if that play another formation.

Good luck to the Sooners this season during their 20-match season.

Boomer Sooner!

[AustinTXSooner]

Here's a preview from a different angle.

We had a Senior heavy team last year and we'll pay the price for it this year. Four of our top 6 minutes played players are gone. That includes our stud goalie Nikki Panas. We do return our top two minutes played players: England and Michel. I was sad to see Melenhorst gone. She's a good player. I was also sad to see Yoshida gone. I never understood why she didn't play more. But hey, I'm not at practice and I have no idea what's going on off the field either.

We do return three of our top five point getters. Bri Amos, Leonie Weber, and Ella Pappas. Pappas came on strong at the end of the year and is likely to nearly double her minutes this year.

For the new recruits, we signed the #11 ranked class. 10 signees. I don't follow soccer recruiting enough to know if that's normal or a lot.

4-stars: Ellie Geoffroy (def), Hali Hartman (def), Alexis Washington (fwd)
3-stars: Cassie Clifton (def), Hadley Murrell (def), Michelle Pak (fwd), Olivia Ramey (gk)
2-stars: Marianne Baltmanis (def)
Unknown: Zoe McCabe (fwd), Chelsea Wagner (fwd)

Of the four transfers, I'd guess that Hawkins and Short will get a lot of playing time early. Short was Nebraska's goalie for two years. And despite her name, she's 5'11" tall. One of the transfers looks to be Bri Amos' sister, so she's got the DNA.

I'll be watching the game Friday to see how all of the new players look.

[AustinTXSooner]

There were four freshman not on the list I was looking at. I don't see much information on Rami Rapp, Elle Efremsky, or Elizabeth Rapp. Looks like the Rapps are sisters (twins?). However, Morganne Eikelbarner looks like she'll come in and hit the ground running.

[OUBeliever56A]

I'll be watching the game Friday to see how all of the new players look.

Maybe you could share your thoughts about the game and the lopsided Friday 9-0 Win. Is Hawkins a true scorer or did she score off of mistakes (turnovers)?

[AustinTXSooner]

I'll be watching the game Friday to see how all of the new players look.

Maybe you could share your thoughts about the game and the lopsided Friday 9-0 Win. Is Hawkins a true scorer or did she score off of mistakes (turnovers)?

Yeah, I looked at the wrong Friday on my calendar. Turns out that I meant this coming Friday's game. I don't live near Norman anymore.

[AustinTXSooner]

Apparently I suck at reading a calendar. The game is this Thursday.

[OUBeliever56A]

Calendars are tough, they have lots of numbers.....ha!

We are planning on going to the match on Thursday as well.

Boomer Sooner!

[TropicalSooner]

I have seen where one of our OU recruiting analysis guru's Jackie Winz is flying in from NJ and plans to be at the match on Thursday. Please give her a warm Sooner welcome if you see her. She's a staunch Sooner supporter and has amazing insight especially regarding our potential softball recruiting efforts, but also follows soccer, football, basketball, and all things Sooner.+
Boomer!