OSU Soccer: Cowgirls Make NCAA Tournament, Headed to Fayetteville

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STILLWATER — After a few seasons of being narrowly on the outside looking in of the NCAA Tournament field, the Cowgirls are back in the national tournament.

Oklahoma State will play Arkansas, a 2 seed, in the first round of the tournament at 6:30 p.m. Friday in Fayetteville. It’s the first time the Cowgirls have been in the NCAA Tournament since the 2020 season.

“It means a ton,” OSU coach Colin Carmichael said. “I feel really great for these seniors, the fourth and fifth year and the transfer kids. This is why they want to play at Oklahoma State. I think two of the last three years we’ve been one of the last teams left out, and that hurts. That gets to you. So, this year we wanted to make sure we weren’t in that position, and we felt, obviously, really good going into it that we were in. Means a lot. It’s where this program wants to be. These are the type of games you want to play in. I’m excited for the younger players to get a taste of it as well.

“The next step in this program’s progression of getting back to where we want to be is getting to host games here at NPS, which I know we were really close to doing this year. That’ll be one of the things we talk about for next year.”

The Cowgirls enter the Tournament at 14-4-3 this season and have shined defensively. OSU didn’t allow a goal until its 10th game of the season. OSU has given up multiple goals in just six games this year.

OSU is coming off a second round exit in the Big 12 Tournament after besting Cincinnati in the first round before the Cowgirls suffered their worst defeat of the year in a 5-0 loss to BYU. Those Cougars went on to earn a 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Cowgirls were one of seven Big 12 squads to make the NCAA field, joining Texas Tech, BYU, Kansas, TCU and West Virginia.

The Cowgirls have scored 42 goals this season, which ranks third in the Big 12 behind only TCU (53) and Texas Tech (42). The Cowgirl defense has given up 15 goals, which ranks second-best in the conference behind Tech (15). Junior forward Logan Heausler leads the Cowgirls in scoring with eight goals on the year. Sophomore Laudan Wilson, an All-Big 12 First Team selection, has tallied the most points, though, with five goals and a team-best nine assists. OSU goalkeeper Grace Gordon was named to the league’s Second Team. She ranks first in the conference in goals against average at 0.742. Her 0.571 shutouts per game also leads the league.

Arkansas is 14-2-2 this year and entered the selection show ranked sixth in the RPI (OSU is ranked 31st). The Razorbacks boast the best offense in the SEC having scored 65 goals this year, so there is an element of good offense vs. good defense on Friday night.

“Personally, I love having action during games,” Gordon said. “I love when we’re going up against a hard opponent. I just think it makes us play that much better. I think it’s gonna be a hard and well-played game, honestly. This kind of team, their style of play, I think we kinda know how it goes and we’ve played against it. I’m super excited to see how the game goes, and I think it’s gonna be a great challenge and a great opportunity. I hope we have a good run.”