Women's Soccer Opens Big 12 Play on Friday vs Baylor in Waco!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Women's Soccer Team concluded the pre-Big 12 season with an improved record of 5-2-2 for the early season. The Sooners enter Big 12 play on Friday night in Waco against the 2-4-2 Baylor Bears. Common opponents for Baylor and OU are Houston and SMU. OU tied both teams while Baylor defeated Houston and lost to SMU. I would say that Baylor has played the tougher schedule in their pre-Big 12 matches however.

Friday nights' match represents the possibility of a strong start in Big 2 play for the Sooners. The Sooners have been playing very well as of late. In the last five matches they Sooners are 4-0-1. The lineup for the Sooners have stabilized into a 4-2-4 lineup that has an aggressive strategy on the outside to attack while providing strong defensive play on transitions and when their opponents are attacking. The lineup seems to have stabilized with these players;

Forwards - Pak (LO), Bri Amos (LM), Hawkins (RM) and Washington (RO)
Mid-Field - England and Weber
Defenders - Clifton (LO), Hartman (LM), Michel (RM), Kroflin (RO)
GK - Ramey (or possibly Short)

A host of substitutes are also playing significant minutes. Those players are Geoffrey (DEF), B Rapp (DEF), Brown (MID), Wagoner (FOR), Murrell (FOR), Pappas (FOR) and Eikelbarner (FOR), Wesco (FOR).

Baylor has scored 7 goals in their 8 games while allowing 14. Merrill leads their scoring with 2 goals on the season. Patterson leads the Bears with 2 assists on the season. Baylor attempts 10.4 shots per game while their opponents attempt 12.8 shots per game.

Oklahoma has scored 19 goals in their 9 games while allowing 15 goals. Hawkins leads the Sooners with 5 goals with Bri Amos having 4. Washington leads the Sooners with 5 assists. the Sooners average 16.8 shots per game and allow 11.9 shots per game.

The match could hinge on the ability of the Sooners to score against the defense of the Bears. If they are able to do that, Baylor might not be able to match OU score-for-score over 90 minutes of play.

The match can be streamed on ESPN+ and starts at 7 PM local time.

Good luck to the Sooners as they start Big 12 play.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

Here is the staff writers article about the OU - Baylor Soccer Match on Friday night.

https://soonersports.com/news/2022/9/22 ... -at-baylor

Good luck to the ladies!

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooner Women's Soccer Team continued their strong play as they traveled to Waco for a Friday night match and left town with a 2-0 victory. The match was a spirited contest with a good number of shots on goal by both teams with some good saves by both goal keepers.

Oklahoma broke through with their first goal in the 33rd minute on a from nice left-footed unassisted goal by Ellie Pappas (FR) on a shot that was threaded between two Baylor players and to the right of the GK. A 4th Baylor player tried to defend the shot but only deflected the ball slightly before the shot entered the goal and struck the back of the net. It was a very nice play by Pappas as she was on the move on the left side of the goal area.

In the 82nd minute of the match, Leona Weber iced the match with a goal on a free kick from outside the penalty area that threaded the needle over the Baylor goal keeper's outstretched had and under the top bar of the goal. The goal came after a false start on the free kick that had to be replayed.

In goal for the Sooners, Olivia Ramey (FR) tallied 4 saves in the match. She had one pseudo-misplay on a shot that got away from her, but she quickly pounced on top of the ball to secure the play and dead ball. Ramey started her 5th straight match Friday night and has tallied 3 shutouts in those starts.

The play for the Sooners against Baylor was particularly strong in the midfield area. I thought that England had a very good game with nice passes and carries of the ball into the offensive end. Weber, Washington, Kroflin also helped in that effort with good play. The Sooners are finding a very solid style of play of forcing players forward while maintaining a defensive base behind the attack. Sometimes on set plays by the Sooners, the Sooners can get caught a little short with key defenders forward for the set plays. But other than that, they are attacking and protecting their own net well. Ramey's play has been solid in net also. When the Sooners get the ball in front of the goal, Hawkins, Bri Amos and others provide good results with quick shots and passes. The team is fun to watch.

The lineup had a small tweak on Friday night. I noticed this in the last match against Murray State. Coach Mark Carr is now listing the lineup as a 4-2-4 lineup where it had been a 4-4-2.

The starters were:

GK - Ramey
Defenders - Clifton (LO), Hartman (LM), Michel (RM) and Kroflin (RO)
Midfielders - England (RM) and Pak (LM)
Forwards - Weber (LO), Bri Amos (LM), Hawkins (RM) and Washington (RO)

I thought that all the starters played well with some even playing in a 3rd rotation during the match. All the starters played at least 56 minutes except for Pak. Pak only played 7 minutes to start the game. Hopefully she just tweaked something and can return healthy. Brown picked up the minutes in the mid-field area for Pak as she played 73 minutes. Geoffrey also logged 56 minutes in a reserve role on defense. Wagoner (FOR), Pappas (FOR) and Eikelbarner (FOR) logged 24 or more minutes also.

Here is the staff writers article about the win over Baylor.

https://soonersports.com/news/2022/9/23 ... h-straight

With the win the Sooners moved into a tie for 1st Place in the Big 12 with OSU. All of the other Big 12 team played on Thursday night.

OSU defeated Kansas 2-0
Kansas State and Iowa State played to a 0-0 tie.
Texas and TCU played to a 1-1 tie.
West Virginia and Texas Tech also played to a 1-1 tie.

After 5 straight road games, the Sooners (6-2-2) return to John Crain Field to host three straight matches. Oklahoma host Iowa State (3-3-3) on Sept 29th at 7 PM. On Oct 2nd, Texas Tech (4-2-4) will visit Norman for a 1 PM match. On Oct 6th, Oklahoma State (8-1-1) will arrive for Bedlam Soccer in a 7 PM match.

The evening weather is nice at John Crain Field. Try to make it out to one or all three of the matches in the next two weeks to support an improving Sooner Soccer Team in Big 12 play.

Boomer Sooner!

[AustinTXSooner]

One minor correction. Pak played 17 minutes. The first 17 minutes. She wasn't having her best game, but it wasn't bad and certainly not worth keeping her out of the rest of the game. So I'm hoping it was some minor injury or illness, or something else that was keeping her on the sidelines.

Our first half was better than the second half. In the first half, we played on our offensive side a lot more than our defensive side. In the second half, it seemed pretty equal. Weber's free kick was impressive. That had to be close to 35 yards out to the left. She hooked it in just below the crossbar and just above the goalie's reach. Baylor's goalie is listed as 5'5" and it appeared that one of our strategies was to attempt high kicks into the goal. Bri Amos took several shots from 25+ yards out that should have been played out for a better shot.

Emma Hawkins continues to impress me and I already have high expectations for her. She made a great pass to Wesco to give her a breakaway, only for Wesco to take an open shot inside the penalty box and kick it straight at the goalie. Wesco is a tremendous athlete: big, powerful, physical, aggressive, and fast. You don't find that combination often. But sometimes she looks like she hasn't played soccer very long. She has the tools to be an elite soccer player. She needs for her skills to catch up. I don't mean for that to sound critical. I think she has a ton of potential.

Eikelbarner also continues to impress me. She always seems to be engaged. She doesn't look fast (not slow either), but she must be sneaky fast because she passes other players even when she has the ball. She also seems to have an innate ability to know when she can dribble through traffic and when she needs to pass the ball. Washington has that same ability.

I thought most of the players that got any meaningful minutes played very well.

Looking back at last years standings, the Big 12 shook out like this:

Team	Conference	Overall
TCU	7-1-1	19-2-3
Texas	6-0-3	11-5-6
Baylor	4-2-3	8-5-6
OSU	4-3-1	9-6-3
Texas Tech	4-4-1	11-6-3
West Virginia	3-3-3	10-5-5
OU	4-5	8-11-1
Iowa St	2-6	5-11-1
Kansas	2-7	7-11-1
Kansas St	1-6-2	6-10-2

[OUBeliever56A]

Yeah, I missed on the 7 - 17 minutes thing for Pak. I did see her standing on the side in the bench area in the 2nd half. She has been very good lately in midfield.

I agree about Hawkins. she is just so active and can control the ball so well at her feet. As good as a closer that she seems to be, I have thought that she would be superb as a midfielder moving the ball in the scoring area to forwards. But not on this team, maybe later in her career.

Right now there is a gap between Hawkins and Bri Amos and the rest of the forwards based on their ability to score. I agree about Eikelbarner and her play. She could be very good. As for Wesco, she is capable of scoring but I think she needs minutes to do so. She could help on set pieces also with her height. To get Wesco more minutes, the playing has to come from the midfield area. England is playing very well. Pak had been, and Brown has played well also as of late.

Not as a scorer, but as a outside forward I think Washington is playing very well. Her speed and ball control is a plus for the Sooners. If they could find a "Washington' for the left side, OU would be very dangerous on often, I think.

The next three matches, all at home at John Crain Field, against Iowa State (3-3-3), Texas Tech (4-2-4) and OSU (8-1-1) will be a key for OU to place themselves in the middle of the Big 12. I the Sooners can get through that without a loss and perhaps 2 wins, they are in very good shape.