Oklahoma Women's Soccer - 2 Road Trips to Tulsa this Week!

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Here is the weekend preview article for the Sooner Women's Soccer Squad. The Sooners will make two trips to Tulsa in matches with Tulsa tonight @ 7 PM and Oral Roberts on Sunday @ 5 PM.

https://soonersports.com/news/2022/9/7/ ... r-two.aspx

Tonight's match with Tulsa can be streamed on ESPN+. Sunday's match with Oral Roberts will be streamed on the ORU Sports Network.

Both, Tulsa and ORU are 3-2-1 on the season. Tulsa is 2-2 in their last 4 matches and ORU 2-1-1 in their last four. OU has rallied in the last week with very strong play against North Texas and SMU. Hopefully, the Sooners will continue their strong play and improve their 1-2-2 record on the season.

Good luck to the Sooner Ladies!

Boomer Sooner!

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On the first of two trips to Tulsa this weekend, the Oklahoma Sooners grabbed a victory against Tulsa on Thursday night to even their record at 2W-2L-2T with 2 wins and 1 tie in their last three matches.

Here is the staff writers article about the win over Tulsa 1-0.

https://soonersports.com/news/2022/9/8/ ... tulsa.aspx

The win for the Sooners was provided by a goal in the 32nd minute as Morganne Eikelbarner (FR) sliced a nice left-footed kick into the right side of the net passed the Tulsa GK. Eikelbarner received a very nice pass through two defenders into the box from Ella Pappas (SO). It was the first goal of Eikelbarner's career and the first assist for Pappas in 2022.

The Sooners started very strongly in the match as they applied pressure on the Tulsa defenders early and often in the 1st half. OU outshot Tulsa 23-7 in the match. The Sooners recorded 8 shots on goal to Tulsa's 0 SOG.

The Sooners did play without two starters on Thursday. GK, Makinzie Short (5-YR SR), did not play as well as Bri Amos (R-SR). Amos received 2 yellow cards against SMU last Sunday and might have missed the match due to that. (I think that is the rule.) GK Short rarely kicked the ball forcefully on Sunday against SMU, maybe she has a leg issue that forced her out of Thursday's match. Another player, Chelsea Wagner (FR) did not play for the first time last night (she has been playing about 40 minutes a match.)

The starting lineup was:

GK - Ramey (FR)
Forwards - Hawkins (SR), Wesco (SO)
Midfield - England (JR), Weber (SO), Washington-LO (FR) and Murrell-RO (FR)
Defense - Geoffrey-LO (FR), Hartman-LM (FR), Michel-RM (SO), Kroflin-RO (SO)

In addition to the starters, players playing important minutes for the Sooners were; Clifton - Defense, Brown - Midfield, Pak - Midfield, Eikelbarner - Forward, Pappas - Forward.

I thought that Pak and Brown provided a lot of energy and good play off the bench last night as they have the last several games.

The rotations are rounding out well for the Sooners as well as the positioning up and down the field. The Sooners were very successful against Tulsa in pressuring the ball in the midfield area and controlling the play much of the game. The Sooners did a good job of playing in Tulsa's end of the field on Thursday. About the only low point in the game for OU was allowing 6 corner kicks to Tulsa. But none of the corners were real threats to the FR GK, Ramey, for the Sooners.

Good luck to the Sooners on their return trip to Tulsa on Sunday to play Oral Roberts at 5 PM. With a win, the Sooners will own a 3-2-2 record on the season.

Boomer Sooner!

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The Oklahoma Sooners Soccer team is certainly on a roll right now with their 4th straight Win or Tie as they defeated Oral Roberts on Sunday evening 5-2 in Tulsa. Five different Sooners scored for the Sooners in the match. The Sooners led 4-1 at the half.

Here is the staff writers article about the win for the Sooners.

https://soonersports.com/news/2022/9/11 ... agles.aspx

The Oklahoma goals were scored (and assisted) by Hawkins (Weber), Bri Amos (England), Wagner, Eikelbarner (Wagner) and Michel (Weber). Per the article, the goal by Michel was her first goal of her career.

The starting lineup was:

GK - Ramey (FR)
Forwards - Hawkins (SR), Bri Amos (R-SR)
Midfield - England (JR), Weber (SO), Washington-RO (FR) and Pak-LO (FR)
Defense - Geoffrey-LO (FR), Hartman-LM (FR), Michel-RM (SO), Kroflin-RO (SO)

This was the first start by Pak in her career.

I was only able to watch the first half but I thought that in that half that the Sooners continued their strong play of late. With Pak at LO and Washington at RO Midfielders, the Sooners were able to get the ball up field very strongly the first 25 minutes or so. The passing in the midfield area looked very crisp in the first half.

The article mentioned that the Sooners dropped a defender which I though I noticed the change in the first half. Michel, Hawkins and Geoffrey were the 3 remaining defenders with Kroflin moving more up field shortly before the substitutions started in the first half for the Sooners. I think the Sooners moved a midfielder to the line of forwards for a 3-4-3 look for the Sooners.

The Sooners are playing a very young squad with only 3 Sooners playing significant time that are Juniors or higher; Bri Amos, Hawkins and England with only Amos playing her final season for the Sooners. The young Sophomores and Freshman are playing better it seems each match.

The Sooners will take their 3-2-2 record to Blue Grass country this week with matches against East Tennessee State in Johnson City, Tennessee on Thursday at 6 PM and against Murray State in Murray, Kentucky on Sunday at 11 AM. East Tennessee State is 2-2-2 with their Sunday match being stopped by weather. Murray State is 1-5-1 with them winning their last match.

The Murray State match will be shown on ESPN+ according to the Murray State schedule.

Continued good luck to the Sooner Soccer Team in their last two matches before Big 12 play starts on Friday the 23rd of September in Waco.

Boomer Sooner!