Cowgirl Soccer Captures Big 12 Championship
(This article was generated by Oklahoma State Athletics Media Relations)
STILLWATER -- Oklahoma State claimed the seventh Big 12 Conference championship in program history and its fourth regular season title with a 3-0 win over Baylor Thursday night at Neal Patterson Stadium.
The win marked the seventh in a row for the 12th-ranked Cowgirls as they completed the regular season 14-1-3 and 7-1-1 in conference play.
For OSU, which was picked in the preseason to finish seventh in the league standings, the triumph marks its second regular season title in the last three years as the Cowgirls also win in 2017. The '19 squad joins that 2017 team and the 2008 and 2011 OSU teams as Big 12 regular season champions.
First-half goals by Gabriella Coleman and Julia Lenhardt gave OSU an early cushion against Baylor (8-7-3, 4-5-0), and Camy Huddleston sealed the win with a goal in the 74th minute.
Dani Greenlee continued her standout play in goal as she tallied a career-high eight saves in posting her fifth shutout of the season.
OSU jumped out to an early lead just 6:45 into the match when Lenhardt delivered a shot that deflected off the crossbar to Coleman, who tapped it in for her sixth goal of the season and a 1-0 advantage for the Cowgirls.
The Cowgirls didn't take long to extend their lead. In the 10th minute, Lenhardt collected a pass from Kin Rodriguez and took a chance from 35-yards out, firing shot top shelf to the near post to provide OSU with its second goal in less than three minutes.
In the 35th minute, the OSU defense, which was staunch all night, kept BU from cutting into the Cowgirls' lead when Camrym Wendlandt placed a shot bottom corner within the goalie box that was saved off the line by Elise Hawn.
OSU's final goal came late in the second half off the Cowgirls' 10th corner kick of the game. The ball was sent in near post by Jaci Jones, and following a scrum in the box, was finally tapped in by Huddleston for her fourth goal of the season.
Baylor finished with a slight 16-13 edge in shots, but OSU recorded 10 corner kicks to just one by the Bears.
OSU returns to action in the opening round of the Big 12 Soccer Championship Sunday in Kansas City, Mo., where the top-seeded Cowgirls will take on Bedlam rival Oklahoma at 11:30 a.m. at Swope Soccer Village.
