Soccer Regroups For Big 12 Opener

Sept. 23, 2002

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NORMAN, Okla. -- Oklahoma returns to the friendly confines of John Crain Field this weekend after a tough road trip to California. The Sooners begin Big 12 Conference play by hosting Baylor at 7:30 p.m. Friday night and Texas Tech at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

The first 250 fans through the gates for the Baylor game Friday evening will receive OU Rally Rags. Sunday's game against Texas Tech is designated as Super Sooner Soccer Sunday. Fans showing their OU-South Florida football ticket stub at the gate will receive $2 admission to the game.

Oklahoma (6-2) was blanked, 4-0, by No. 2 Stanford on Sept. 20 and again shutout, 4-0, by defending national champion and No. 10-ranked Santa Clara on Sept. 22 at the Nike Stanford Invitational in Stanford, Calif.

OU goalkeeper Catherine Wade survived a barrage of shots -- 42 to be exact -- in the two games against the West Coast soccer powers. The sophomore from Midland, Texas gave up eight goals but had 14 saves over her 165 minutes in the box.

The Sooners took nine shots with four on goal this weekend. Krissy Dawson (Peoria, Ariz.) had five shots in the Santa Clara game while Shannon Wing (Broken Arrow, Okla.) and Lauren MacIver (Tulsa, Okla.) each had one. MacIver also took one shot against Stanford as did Becky Nelson (Tulsa, Okla.).

"We learned that you can't get away with making mistakes at this level," said head coach Randy Evans. "It was great for us to experience the speed displayed by these top teams in the country. This will really help us now that we are set to begin Big 12 play. Again, we can take a lot of confidence away from our performance this weekend."

Previewing Baylor
The Bears have an identical 6-2 record as OU. Baylor opened up 5-0 to begin the season with wins over Mississippi State and Rice before falling to Arizona State, 1-0, on Sept. 13.

Most recently, the Bears defeated Northern Arizona, 2-0, on Sept. 15 and lost to SMU, 4-2, on Sept. 20. The SMU loss was the first home defeat of the season for Baylor, snapping an eight-game home winning streak for the Bears that dated to Oct. 5, 2001.

10 Baylor players have scored this season with Tiffany Boshers (30), Kristin Ruef (29), and Ginny Rosario-Tull (28) taking the majority of the shots.

Baylor leads the overall series with Oklahoma, 3-1-1, and defeated the Sooners last season in Waco, 3-1, on Oct. 16, 2001.

Previewing Texas Tech
Texas Tech (2-6) dropped its sixth straight match on Sept. 22, when it fell to Florida Atlantic, 4-2, at the Texas A&M Fazoli's Classic in College Station, Texas. The six game losing streak matched the longest in school history as they also lost six straight in the 2000 and 2001 seasons.

Junior Catie Arsenault is the only player for the Red Raiders to score more than one goal overall this season. Seven other players have one goal each. Texas Tech is averaging 11.2 shots per game.

Texas Tech leads Oklahoma, 4-1, overall but the Sooners got their first win in the series last season in Norman, 3-0, on Oct. 5, 2001.

Home, Sweet Home
Oklahoma boasts a four game winning streak at John Crain Field dating back to last season. The Sooners have already knocked off No. 18 SMU and Arizona at home in 2002. Over the past two seasons, OU is 10-1-1 (.875) at home and 15-5-2 (.727) over the past three seasons.

Gunning For Goals
Preseason All-Big 12 forward Logan Womack (Norman, Okla.) has 24 career goals and needs just three more to break the school's all-time career goals mark of 26 set by Jonette Coquat over the 1998-2001 seasons.

Dawson's Peak
Senior forward Krissy Dawson (Peoria, Ariz.) moved into a second place tie with Heather Morrison on the career assists chart with nine. Former Sooner Jonette Coquat leads in the category with 15 career assists from 1998-2001.

Wingin' It
Senior Shannon Wing (Broken Arrow, Okla.) has eight starts in eight games this season extending her streak to 65 straight starts for OU over the past four seasons. Wing has 18 shots and two goals for the Sooners in 2002 and 147 shots and 12 goals for her career.

Big 12 Honors
Catherine Wade (Midland, Texas) was named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 16. The sophomore, with nine career shutouts, is just three away from breaking the school career record for shutouts (11). Wade has contributed four shutouts already this season. Oklahoma leads in the Big 12 in shutouts this season with five.

Tough Schedule
Oklahoma's 2002 schedule includes six teams currently ranked in the NSCAA/adidas Top 25 poll. OU dispatched No. 18 SMU, 1-0, on Sept. 13. The Sooners lost games to No. 2 Stanford on Sept. 20 and defending national champion and No. 10-ranked Santa Clara on Sept. 22. Big 12 rivals Texas (No. 4), Texas A&M (No. 8) and Nebraska (No. 15) are the ranked teams remaining for OU.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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