Cowgirls Top Sooners, Advance To Big 12 Semifinals

Wednesday, November 1

Kansas City, MO

11:30 AM

Oklahoma State University

16-2-2

Oklahoma

3-13-4

Oklahoma

Oklahoma State

Photo by: Scott Weaver/Big 12 Conference

November 01, 2017 | Cowgirl Soccer

Box Score

Box Score (PDF)
Highlights

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Oklahoma State used a pair of first-half goals to defeat Oklahoma for the third time this season as the top-seeded Cowgirls advanced to the Big 12 Championship semifinals with a 2-1 win over their Bedlam rival Wednesday at the Swope Soccer Village.

The win was the sixth in a row for OSU, which improved to 16-2-2 on the season, and the Cowgirls snapped a three-game losing skid at the Big 12 tourney as they had fallen in the opening round each of the last three seasons. OSU will take on the Texas/Baylor winner Friday at 4:30 p.m. with a berth in Sunday's tournament final on the line.

The victory also gives OSU a three-game season sweep of OU for the second time in program history and improves the Cowgirls to 23-8-3 in the all-time series. The two teams previously met three times in both the 2010 and 2011 seasons – in 2010, the Cowgirls won two regular season matches and then tied the Sooners in the Big 12 Championship final before claiming a title in a penalty kick shootout; the following year, OSU won all three contests.

Haley Woodard and Coumba Sow recorded the OSU goals against the Sooners (3-13-4) as the Cowgirls outshot OU by a 17-12 margin and owned an 8-4 advantage in corner kicks.

The Cowgirls took the lead in the 23^rd minute with a familiar connection hooking up for the goal as Woodard, the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, took a pass from Anna Beffer in the middle of the box and delivered a shot to the far post. The goal was Woodard's Big 12-best eighth of the season, while Beffer notched her 11^th assist.

OSU's defense kept the Sooners from getting the equalizer with a standout play in the 32^nd minute when OU's Tori Bowman delivered a shot that Cowgirl center back Laurene Tresfield saved off the line by booting the ball over the crossbar.

Following the stellar defensive play, OSU took a 2-0 advantage at the 35:54 mark. This time it was Beffer taking a corner kick and sending it into the box where Sow headed it past OU goalie McKinley Crone; the goal was Sow's third of the season and marked the seventh goal the Cowgirls have scored directly off a corner kick this season.

Beffer recorded her 12^th assist on the play, with that total moving her into a tie for the 2017 NCAA lead in that statistic. It also marks the fourth-most assists in a single season in OSU history and moved the senior into fifth on the Cowgirls' career list.

After being outshot 12-3 in the opening half, OU would pick up its attack after intermission, and the Sooners needed just 70 seconds to get on the scoreboard out of the halftime locker room when Madeline Brem chipped in a Jordan Hobart cross to make the score 2-1.

But the OSU defense rose to the occasion to keep the Sooners from getting the equalizer, with goalie Michela Ongaro recording all three of her saves in the match in the final half.