OU Women's Soccer Begins B12 Play: Hosts Kansas on Thursday 7 PM

[OUBeliever56A]

The 4-3 Oklahoma Women's Soccer Team opens their Big 12 season on Thursday night in a key matchup with Kansas on Thursday night at John Crain Field at 7 PM. The opening match of the Big 12 season is the first of several key matches for the Sooners. The Jayhawks have posted a 4-1-3 record during their pre-season play in 2023. The Big 12 Coaches voted Kansas to finish in 8th place in the Big 12 while Oklahoma was voted to finish 9th in the Big 12.

Being able to pick up a win Thursday at home does two things; 1) A win enables OU to defeat a team ranked just above them in the Massey Ratings which helps potential post-season play and 2) Gives the Sooners a big win over a what appears to be a fellow mid-level team in the Big 12 which helps the Sooners reach the Top 8 in the conference for the season-ending B12 Tourney berth. It also successfully opens conference play with a win at home for new Sooner Head Coach Matt Mott.

Oklahoma has been led by Red-SR Emma Hawkins in 2023. Hawkins has picked up 18 points in their first 7 games with 8 goals and 2 assists. Leonie Weber, JR, has totalled 11 points as she has 4 goals and 3 assists. Hadley Murrell (SO) has 9 points with 3 goals and 3 assists, Dani Wolfe, Red-SR Transfer, has 7 points with 2 goals and 3 assists and Morganne Eikelbarner (SO) has 5 points with 2 goals and 1 assist in a reserve role. Alexis Washington (SO) has the team lead with 4 assists.

On defense the Sooners are lead by Andie Wolfe (JR Transfer) who has also picked up 3 points on offense and Cailey England (SR) and Cassie Clifton (SO). In the Midfield, Muriel Kroflin (Red-SO) has picked up 4 points and helped back on defense well. Michelle Pak (SO) has become a primary ball handler in the midfield and added 2 points.

Both Sierra Giorgio (Red-SO Transfer) and Olivia Ramey (SO) have split the play at GK with Giorgio picking moving into the starters role as of late.

Zoe Parkhurst (FR), and Keller Matise (JR Transfer), who has scored 3 points, have picked up strong minutes in the midfield and defense as the season has played out. Ella Pappas (JR) and Chelsea Wagner (SO) have picked up minutes in the all areas of play also. Kellis Brown (Red-SO), Esalenna Galekhutle (JR Transfer) and Leane Commaret (JR Transfer) have also picked up minutes in play as of late.

The Sooners have scored 23 goals in their 7 games for a 3.28 GPM average while giving up 12 goals for 1.7 GAPM with 1 shutout. All of the goals score dby OU so far in 2023, have been scored at John Crain Field as they have been shutout on the road so far in 2023.

Kansas (3-1-4) started the preseason with a 3-0-2 record but in their last 3 matches they are 0-1-2 against Missouri (T), Kansas City (T) and Washington State (L). They have scored 17 goals and scored in each match while allowing only 6 goals with 3 shutouts. Halle Klanke has led the Jayhawks in scoring with 4 goals and 5 assists for 13 points. Four other players for Kansas has scored 2 goals with Lexi Watts having the most shots and SOG. Watts also has 7 points as the 2nd point scorer for the Kansas. Five Jayhawks have logged over minutes in the mid and defensive ends of the pitch.

The Oklahoma - Kansas match should be an very good match to watch as a fan. It looks like there could be a little rain in the area also. Bring an rain jacket and maybe a sweater to the game and wear your Crimson and Cream and support the Women's Soccer team as thy open Big 12 play on Thursday night at John Crain Field. Good luck to the Sooners as they try to open Big 12 play with a win on Thursday.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

Here is the Sooner staff wrtiers article about the weekend for the Sooner Women's Soccer team. The Sooners play Kansas Thursday night at 7 PM and then travel to Omaha to play Nebraska-Omaha at 1 PM on Sunday.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/9/13 ... -on-sunday

Good luck to the Sooner Soccer Team!

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooner Women's Soccer Team opened their Big 12 season last night with a very well played first half against the Kansas Jayhawks and led the match by a score of 2-0 after the first half. I thought the first half for Oklahoma was perhaps the best half of soccer that they had played all year, considering the opponent. In the midfield area, the Sooners anticipated passes and successfully broke up many Kansas passes by breaking in front of the Jayhawk player and intercepting the pass or deflecting the pass away. The Sooners earned 8 corner kicks in the half as the play was in the Kansas half and in OU's possession 59% of the time.

In the second half, that burst of speed and aggressive play on defense for the Sooners seemed to wain just a bit for the Sooners and gradually Kansas was able to turn the play around. Kansas scored on a set play on a Corner Kick with an uncontested header in the box in the 65th minute to make the score 2-1. In the 84th minute, Kansas got the tying goal odd of another set piece from the Corner as the ball was headed by a Sooner player over near the goal post on the left side, which led to a quick reaction goal by Kansas with the OU GK, Girogio flashing over and just missing the ball as she crashed into the goal post.

There are good wins, lucky wins, tough losses and then there are tough ties. Thursday night the Sooners had one of those tough ties. Kansas managed to pull themselves up from a loss to a tie and earn a point on the road. While earning a tie and one point is not all bad for the Sooners against the higher ranked Jayhawks, the win and two points would have been a very good way to open their Big 12 season.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the 2-2 tied with the Jayhawks.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/9/14 ... -12-opener

It was a tale of two halves, as Coach Mott mentioned in the post-game comments. In the first half the Sooners really played well. IMO, the Jayhawks was probably a bit lucky to only trail by 2 goals at the half. Twice the Jayhawks were called for fouls in the box as OU attempted two penalty kicks. The first PK was attempted by Dani Wolfe. Her low kick to the right of the Kansas GK, Pasar. The GK dove to her left perfectly and stopped the shot with one hand just in front of the goal line. The second PK was attempted by Leone Weber and she put OU ahead 2-0 in the 38th minute of the match. Weber's goal was in the upper right of the goal passed Pasar.

Oklahoma's first goal was in the 26th minute off of a Corner Kick. The lofted centering kick by Weber from the corner fell to the ground ner Dani Wolfe, who reacted quickly and punched the ball passed the Kansas defense and GK to score the opening goal of the game.

OU had a couple of other good opportunities for goals in the match. On another Corner, a Sooner got up over the Kansas defense and headed the ball to high over the crossbar. A couple of other shots after good passing lead to shot opportunities as well that were just off. OU had 18 shots in the match to 6 for Kansas. OU had 9 Corners to 5 for Kansas.

Coach Mott and his coaches decided to use the starters last night for most of the match. Of the 10 field players that started the match, 7 played 83 minutes with the other 3 playing at least 64 minutes. Hawkins, Pak, England, Andie Wolfe, Clifton, Weber, and Washington all played over 83 minutes. Murrell, Dani Wolfe and Kroflin all played at least 64 minutes. The Sooner subs played more than 20 minutes with Parkhurst playing 30 minutes for the most off of the bench.

Again, it was a tough tie for the Sooners on Thursday night.

Elsewhere in Big 12 Soccer play on Thursday, here is a recap of the action.

- Oklahoma State traveled to Iowa State and won 4-1 over the Cyclones. Four different players scored for the Cowgirls with Wilson picking up 3 assists.
- UCF hosted WV and won 4-2 over the Mountaineers. It looks like the last UCF goal was a "own goal" by WV.
- Texas Tech won 3-0 over the visiting Houston Cougars in Lubbock.
- Texas traveled to Waco and won 4-0 behind Missimo's 2 goals. The score was tied 0-0 at the half. Leading 1-0, Texas scored three goals in the span of 8 1/2 minutes in the 2nd half.
- Cincinnati traveled to Manhattan and managed to leave Kansas with a tie in a 1-1 result. The score as 0-0 at the half. Concy outshot K-State in the match.
- TCU traveled to Provo, UT and almost left with a win, but BYU scored in the 77th minute to tie the score at 3-3. There was a huge crowd at the game for BYU. It looked like a fun atmosphere for a match in Provo as I caught the end of the match on TV after I arrived home from the OU-Kansas match. Castain scored two goals for TCU.

The standings after the first Thursday in the Big 12 is:

1. Oklahoma State, UCF, Texas, Texas Tech at 1-0 - 2 points

4, BYU, Cincinnati, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma and TCU at 0-0-1 - 1 point

10. Baylor, Houston, Iowa State and West Virginia at 0-2 and 0 points.

There is no Big 12 conference play this weekend. Five teams play on Saturday and Sunday though with Big 12 play returning again next Thursday.

Oklahoma will travel to Omaha to Play Nebraska-Omaha on Sunday at 1 PM. I do not think the match is televised. But it can be followed on 'Live Stats'.

Boomer Sooner!