Oklahoma Sooner Soccer @ Big 12 Tourney in Bedlam Rematch Today!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners Women's Soccer Team will be in Round Rock today playing a Bedlam Rematch 5 days after OSU took a victory over OU 1-0 on a goal in the 83rd minute of play.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about today's 3:30 CST match. The match will be televised at 3:30 PM today on ESPN+.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/10/2 ... at-big-12s

Here is the Big 12 article about the Big 12 Tourney.

https://big12sports.com/tournaments/?id=1019&path=soc

The Oklahoma squad is hoping to repeat the 1st round win in the Big 12 Tourney as they did last year against Texas Tech as the Sooners surprised Tech with a 1-0 victory. This year the win will have to come against Oklahoma State. They game will likely be a defensive game with both teams taking turns attacking during the game. A set piece from the corner or an a free kick could decide the game.

The Sooners should be a full speed today with all starters playing. The Sooners may have to send Leone Weber and Hadley Murrell forward to help Emma Hawkins and Dani Wolfe with the attack against OSU and OSU has a strong backline on defense. An open field goal will likely take two but at least one very good pass for the Sooners to score. Maybe Michell Pak or Muriel Kroflin can provide the forwards with a scoring opportunity as she can turn the ball around quickly with a steal in the midfield area.

Good luck to the Sooners to today in hopes that they can pick up a win today. With that win they will play on Monday against a rested BYU team.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners got everything they needed from Escalante Galekhutle (Transfer from Tyler JC) in the 75th minute as she scored from just inside the 18-box on a nicely placed shot over the Cowgirl GK and under the crossbar to give OU the 1-0 lead and the won against Oklahoma State in the first round of the Big 12 Soccer Tourney. Galkhutle's goal come on a nice pass from Calley England from the midfield area. The win by the Sooners advances the Sooners to face BYU on Monday at 5:30 PM.

The Sooners tweaked things a bit for yesterday's rematch with OSU from last Monday's loss 1-0 to OSU as the Cowgirls scored in the 82nd minute of play. Coach Mott moved Muriel Kroflin back to the inside right back row along with England, Andi Wolfe and Cassie Clifton. That change allowed England to push forward much more to help play in the midfield. The move also allowed Alexis Washington to focus on playing forward from the midfield area on the right side of the pitch. Washington and Hadley Murrell spent much of the match forward from the midfield area to help Emma Hawkins and Dani Wolfe and Galekhutle. The Sooners played with a great deal of energy during the match to help themselves to the win. 8 of the 10 field players for the Sooners played 80 minutes on the 80-ish degree day. The backrow of the Sooners along with the GK Olivia Ramey played good sound defense yesterday.

OU had 12 shots to OSU's 11. Only 1 of OSU's shots was truly threatening while OU had two or three tough shots placed on goal. OU returned to the strong advancement of the ball as they earned 11 corner kicks to only 3 by OSU. The win away from John Crain Field in Norman was OU's third win or tie this season on the road out of 10 tries.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the win over OSU in the Big 12 Tourney.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/10/2 ... rterfinals

From the article: "I'm just so proud of my team," first-year head coach Matt Mott said after his first Bedlam victory. "They just fought and fought and fought. It was a tough environment to play in against a tough opponent, but we got the job done and we're excited to move on."

Two things to watch for going forward is first about Dani Wolfe. Can she play on Monday? She took a hard fall on the turf yesterday in the early minutes of the second half and did not return. It sounded and looked like a left arm injury. The second thing is can OU recover quickly to play another match on Monday with 8 players playing for 90 minutes? The Sooners have extended the minutes of players most of the season with usually 6 or 7 players playing full minutes. BYU plays a quick pace with lots of ball movement.

While the facility in Round Rock is a nice facility, the use of an artificial turf field to play the Big 12 Tourney when none of the 14 teams play on turf except for Cincinnati. Soccer on turf is a different game due to the bounce of the ball.

The win by OU over OU reverses one trend and continues another. The reversal trend is that OU picked up their first win against OSU since 2018 when OU defeated OSU. The win on the 'road' is the first since 2016 when OU defeated OSU in Stillwater.

The trend that continued was the the Sooners have now won their first round match in the Big 12 Tourney for two years in a row as they upset Texas Tech last year and upset OSU yesterday.

The road forward does not get easier. But the Sooners are still playing. On Monday, the Sooners (8-9-2) wil face the 14-1-3 BYU Cougars. The Cougars are an experienced squad who is currently ranked as the 7th best team in the country.

Good luck to the Sooners on Monday afternoon/evening against BYU at 5:30 PM. The game will be on ESPN+, I believe.

Boomer Sooner!

[AustinTXSooner]

That complex has a grass field and an artificial turf field. They were originally supposed to play on the grass field. The amount of rain we've had this week forced a change to the artificial turf field.

I heard somewhere that Dani's injury was her left wrist.

It was an interesting and sometimes frustrating match to watch. OSU plays ball control and we essentially play punch and run. Washington is one of the few that plays ball control for us.

The only substitutions for us yesterday were Weber and Galekhutle trading off and Pappas and Dani Wolfe trading off.