Sports

PAGE 8 | WWW.OBUSIGNAL.COM Women’s soccer advances to semifinals in penalty kicks

BY RYAN YORK

2021-2022 Sports Editor

On Saturday, April 10, the Tigers closed out a long game against Northwestern Oklahoma State University with a 4-2 win in penalty kicks. With its victory over the Rangers, the team advanced to the semfinals.

Along with advancing in the tournament, 11 Tigers received year-end awards from the Great American Conference. Head coach Kevin Wright was named the GAC’s Coach of the Year and senior Brianna Lozano is the GAC’s Newcomer of the Year.

In their game against the Rangers, the Tigers set the tone in the first half with 53% of possession, keeping the ball out of their defensive third.

“From a scoreline standpoint you saw the run of play was about what we expected,” Wright said. “We thought we had a lot of the ball, we had a lot of chances. In the first half I think they took one shot. I don’t know that they really ever troubled Michele [Snow].”

In the first half of the game, the Tigers took 12 shots compared to the Rangers’ one. Though Ouachita created the chances to put a ball in the back of the net, the scoreboard still read 0-0 going into the second half.

During the next half of the game, the Rangers turned things around and started the first five minutes in their attacking third with three corner kick attempts. The Tigers held them off, but were denied a goal from a penalty kick late in the game by NWOSU’s goalie Reyna Gonzalez. In that half of the game, the Tigers took nine shots, while the Rangers only took five.

When the clock expired, the score was still set at 0-0 and the games went into double overtime. In both periods, the Tigers took shots on the goal, but to no avail.

In the shootout, the Tigers showed the conference why they are the number two seed, scoring every shot they took. The Rangers replied with two missed goals, which gave the Tigers a win before the designated five shots were taken.

As the Tigers move into the semifinals, they have proven themselves to be a formidable opponent and 11 members of the team earned a GAC award.

Senior Ashlyn Heckman, junior Jaymee Dotson and sophomore Hanna Thompson were named to the All-Conference First Team.

Junior Jamie Fowler, sophomore Josilyn Kispert, senior Erica Gaddie and sophomore Michele Snow made the All-GAC Second Team. Senior Meagan North and sophomore Gracen Turner earned spots on the All-GAC Honorable Mention Team.

For individual awards, Coach Wright won his first GAC Coach of the Year award while at Ouachita, ending the regular season with a conference record of 4-2. Returning to Ouachita for her senior season, defender Brianna Lozano took home the GAC’s Newcomer of the Year award.

On April 15, the Tigers will face off against Southern Nazarene University (SNU) in Shawnee, Okla., for their semifinal match. The Tigers played SNU for their first conference game this season, beating the Crimson Storm 3-1. If the team wins in the semifinals, it will move on to face the winner of the East Central and Oklahoma Baptist matchup in the conference championship on April 17.