are tied. We now have life and hope and belief again. The game goes into overtime, where AD makes two huge saves. The clock runs out, and we go to a penalty kick shootout to declare the victor. We have a group of 10 players who have practiced penalty kicks all season long for just such an occasion. But practicing them and converting them under pressure with a championship on the line are two different things. Wernimont, Michalowski, DeLozier, Leggett and Lopez will be our first five shooters. If things go well, we won’t have to go past a fifth shooter. If AD can make a save, then we might just advance and win the trophy. All five of our shooters make their penalty kicks. AD makes one save. It’s enough. Cowgirls win again! It’s the third conference championship in three years for us. We are so proud of this team.
The NCAA TourNAmeNT we return to stillwater with another trophy and hope that wherever we travel to for the NCAA tournament won’t be far. In the women’s college soccer world it’s called “Selection Monday.” We know that despite our top 10 ranking and a top 10 RPI, we will most likely be shipped off to some far locale for the NCAA tournament. We’ve always traveled to either the east coast or west coast for our NCAA tournament games. Our destinations over the last four years have been Clemson, S.C., Los Angeles, Calif., Rutgers, N.J., and and Santa Clara, Calif. We figure we will have to travel nearly a thousand miles or maybe more to get to our next game. We gather our team, staff and some supporters in the west endzone
of Boone Pickens Stadium for a watch party. We tune in to ESPN to see the 2010 women’s soccer bracket unveiled live. Teams and seeds start coming up, with 64 to be named in all. We know we are in the group somewhere, but three regions have been shown and we’re still waiting. and then it happens. Our name pops up on the screen with three other teams for the first and second round games. we Can’t believe what we are seeing — we are hosting! Or at least we are pretty sure we are hosting. The TV screen lists the games in Oklahoma City, but it turns out that was a mistake made by some young production assistant who apparently didn’t know Oklahoma State University was in Stillwater. We forgive the mistake. We are just excited that we are getting to host. Colin and I always felt if we had been on our home field in 2006 and in 2008 we would have probably advanced to at least the Sweet Sixteen. But we weren’t, and we didn’t. So we feel like this is the chance of our program’s life thus far to advance past the second round. We make preparations to host our first ever NCAA women’s soccer event on the Stillwater campus when Michigan, Memphis and Oregon State come to town. We match up with the Wolverines in the first round. If we advance we will play the winner of Memphis and Oregon State. Any team that makes the NCAA tournament as an at-large team is going to be good. Michigan makes the field as probably one of the last at-large teams taken. We know that nothing can be taken for granted in the NCAA tournament. We will need to play well.
The night of the game we watch as the skies alternate between continual mist and outright rain. And the temperature is as cold as it’s been since last winter. The conditions are not good. In fact, between the cold and the moisture the conditions are miserable. We wonder if it favors a team from Ann Arbor. Six hundred hearty souls show up for the game and support our Cowgirls. It is a smaller crowd than we’d hoped, but a larger crowd than we thought would actually show in this weather. After some very sloppy play, we find ourselves down 1–0 at halftime. After an inspired “do better” talk by Colin at halftime, our girls really respond. The team we know and recognize shows up. Katie Richardson decides that she is not ready to stop playing in a Cowgirl uniform just yet and steps up her game. Her runs at Michigan’s defense turned the tide. She is fouled. and off of the free kick our freshman, Taylor Mathews, delivers a ball right in front of Michigan’s net. Minnie flies in bravely, risking a punch by the goalkeeper, and bangs in a header. It’s her first goal of the year. story continues
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