Oklahoma State Soccer Falls At Big 12 Tournament To Baylor

Oklahoma State was knocked out of the Big 12 Soccer Championship in the first round Wednesday night as the second-seeded Cowgirls were upset by No. 7 seed Baylor in a 1-0 contest at Swope Soccer Village.

With the loss, OSU falls to 10-9-1 on the year. The setback marks just the second time in the last six years the Cowgirls have failed to advance to the conference tournament finals.

Baylor (9-8-2) netted the lone goal of the match in the 37th minute and held on the rest of the way against a strong OSU attack to secure the upset.

“The first half we just didn't come out with the right intensity; Baylor did a great job of coming out and playing hard, disrupting us and dictating the way the game went,” said OSU coach Colin Carmichael. “We're very disappointed with our lack of intensity and how we played in the first half.

“In the second half, we really turned it around, and it was one-way traffic for a while. We were a little bit unlucky not to get a goal. It's the old cliché, a game of two halves – they were better in the first half, got a goal and held on to it, and we couldn't get one in the second half.”

Baylor thought it had recorded a goal in the 14th minute. After Rosa Medina made a save on a header by Precious Akanyirige, the Bears put the rebound in the back of the net but were whistled for offsides to negate the score.

Medina kept BU off the scoreboard with another impressive save in the 34th minute. Off a corner kick, Alexa Wilde delivered a header toward the upper near post, but Medina leapt and snatched it out of harm's way.

The Bears finally converted a chance at the 36:49 mark when off a throw in by Katie Daigle into the box, Jordan Hatler delivered her first-career goal on a blast to the far post to put BU up, 1-0.

The first-half statistics showed an even match as OSU owned a 10-9 advantage in shots and a 4-3 edge in saves, while both teams recorded three corner kicks.

OSU took command of the attack early in the second half and narrowly missed on several equalizing chances, including a 25-yard laser from Anna Beffer that deflected off the top of the crossbar in the 58th minute.

Carmichael's squad would continue to create opportunities as it outshot BU by a 13-2 margin after intermission and finished with a 23-11 advantage in the match. However, none of the second-half attempts were on frame, and the Cowgirls were shut out for the fourth time this season.

The Cowgirls will now await their NCAA tourney fate as OSU aims for its eighth appearance in the last 10 years. The field of 64 for the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship will be announced Monday at 3:30 p.m.

“We feel like we deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament, but whether that translates into getting in or not I don't know,” Carmichael said. “A lot of it will come down to RPI. We were 28 coming into this game, and we'll see where we end up on Sunday. I definitely feel we deserve it after finishing second in the second-ranked RPI league in the country. Hopefully it will be enough and we'll get in, but we'll be a little bit anxious until we see our name Monday.”