Heartbreak for the Cowgirls in NCAA as Two Penalty Kicks Miss
There is no doubt that if you were going to list the best players in the history of the Oklahoma State soccer program that senior defender Hannah Webb would be on that list. A sophomore that is quickly rising to join Webb on any all-time list is midfielder Olyvia Dowell and at the end of the line Wednesday in Cary, North Carolina that duo was taking penalty kicks for the Cowgirls in a Sweet 16 match in the NCAA Women’s Soccer Championship bubble against Texas A&M.
The two squads were tied 3-3 after regulation and two overtimes, 110-minutes of soccer. The two teams were knotted at three each in the penalty kick shoot-out. Dowell was up and fired her shot over the top of the goal. The Aggies Laurn Geczik was next and Oklahoma State keeper Emily Plotz read her mind and reached to her right to block the shot.
That brought up Webb and she fired her shot at A&M goalkeeper and Edmond, Okla. product Jordan Burbank to the far post and instead of coming in just inside for a goal the shot hit the post squarely and bounced back at Webb. The Cowgirl senior was immediately dejected as she turned back to face the Oklahoma State bench with her face covered by her hands. This time Plotz couldn’t rescue the miss as A&M’s Laney Carroll put the ball past Plotz into the back of the net for the match winner in the shoot-out.
“I told them i love them,” head coach Colin Carmichael said after the match. “I told them there isn’t a team I'd rather go down this road with. I know a lot of coaches say that but this group was special. I told them I love tham and I can't wait to do it again in August. They are an awesome bunch of kids.”
Officially, it goes down as a 3-3 tie with Texas A&M advancing 4-3 in the shoot-out. Oklahoma State finishes the season 13-3-2 and a sweet 16 finish in the longest college soccer season ever. The Cowgirls played their first match back on Sept. 12 at Kansas State. The COVID-19 pandemic took them all the way until May in this crazy college sports season.
“We played our hearts out and it is unfortunate that it ended the way it did," Gabriella Coleman said. “I’m proud of all my teammates because we battled the whole time and never gave up.”
Texas A&M moves on to play the winner of a match between top-ranked North Carolina and Washington.
Oklahoma State battled the final 18:12 of overtime down a player as Charme’ Morgan was given a second yellow card, which added up to a red card and she was ejected from the match. It was an heroic effort as the Aggies had pretty much dominated the match and pushed most of the play into Oklahoma State’s end of the pitch.
“The red card changes everything in overtime and from that point we were battling and trying to get to penalty kicks,” Carmichael said of the loss of Morgan and going a player down.
A&M outshot the Cowgirls 38-11 with an edge of 16-5 in shots on goal. Obviously, Oklahoma State needed to have the better stats at goalkeeper and did as Emily Plotz had a season high 12 saves versus two for Kenna Caldwell, who played in goal during the match before Burbank came on for the shoot-out. Each team had 13 fouls and A&M won the corners with 16-6.
“First half I thought A&M was excellent and they had us on our back foot,” Carmichael described. “We struggled with them and they are very athletic, but ot our credit we hung in there with them. We told our kids at halftime that we weren’t good enough the first half but we were still in the game and we talked about doing some things differently in the second half. The first half we absorbed the pressure but we couldn’t breakout and I don't know if it was because we were nervous or what. The second half we were much more like ourselves.”
Oklahoma State started the scoring when Gabriella Coleman scored her first of two goals when she got the pass (assist) from Olyvia Dowell and powered the ball into the corner for a 1-0 lead. Less than three minutes later the Aggies tied the score with a goal by Taylor Ziemer. Just before the half, A&M took the lead on a goal by Ali Russell assisted by Jai Smith for a 2-1 lead.
The Cowgirls evened the score when Dowell put the ball into the upper corner after getting the pass from Webb. Obviously, a happier moment in the game for that pair. The Cowgirls took the lead at the 77-minute mark when Coleman got the ball from Shyann McClary and bulled her way in the box and stuck the shot past Caldwell for a 3-2 Oklahoma State lead.
“I wanted to show them the best that I could be," Coleman said of her performance with the two goals. “It was A&M and I wanted to show them what they missed when they recruited me.”
“Phenominal, G is so explosive and she did something crazy last season like scoring goals in eight of the last nine games," Carmichael added. “That's her thing and I think she felt good since that goal (winner) in the Notre Dame game.”
Unfortunately, Taylor Pounds scored unassisted just two minutes later to get Texas A&M tied in the match leading to overtime and then on to the the shoot-out.