No. 6 Texas Tech downs Oklahoma State 1-0 on senior day; finishes regular season undefeated at home

Before Sunday, the last three soccer games between Texas Tech and Oklahoma State were even duels.

The only game of those that wasn’t a draw is still considered a draw because it was a Tech win in the 2021 Big 12 Tournament on penalty kicks.

No. 6 Texas Tech’s 1-0 win over Oklahoma State on Sunday not only was Tech’s first win over Oklahoma State without penalty kicks since 2019, but it was also a senior day victory at the John Walker Soccer Complex that brought Tech to 13-0-4 on the season, 7-0-2 in Big 12 play and 10-0-0 at home.

Sunday’s win symbolized how far this team has come in more ways than one.

Seven seniors were honored Sunday, and super-seniors Madison White, Hannah Anderson and Penelope Mulenga were at Tech in 2019, the last time Tech beat Oklahoma State.

It was also the last time they made the NCAA Tournament.

2020 was a rough year for Texas Tech soccer as they dealt with injuries and COVID-19 on their way to a 5-6-2 finish. It was head coach Tom Stone’s first finish under .500 since 2008, his second season at Tech.

2021 and 2022 got them back to having winning records and decent finishes in the Big 12, but the Big 12 was not in the best spot, and their RPI was too low to justify making the NCAA Tournament both years. Even in 2022 when they turned the corner after a frustrating 2-0 loss to Texas, it still wasn’t enough.

But what they did then set the stage for 2023. Since the loss to Texas on Sept. 25, 2022, Texas Tech has gone 18-1-6, only losing in the first round of last year’s Big 12 Tournament to Oklahoma and never allowing more than a goal each game except for the 2-2 draw Oct. 5 with then-No. 7 BYU.

Only the super-seniors understood what it was like for Tech to beat Oklahoma State in the regular season. Still, even they hadn’t beaten TCU before Oct. 8’s 1-0 victory.

Even early in the season, they took a North Texas team that played them close in 2022 and routed them 6-1 Aug. 31 with Alex Kerr’s first career hat trick. A week before that, they watched Ashleigh Williams become the second Tech player ever to have two career hat tricks, something that not even players like Kirsten Davis or Janine Beckie did for the Red Raiders.

None of them had been on a team that was No. 6 in the United Soccer Coaches Poll, a tie for the highest Texas Tech has ever been ranked in the poll. None of them, and no Red Raider until now, had ever helped Texas Tech to an undefeated home regular season.

No Blackburn, but still finding ways to score

The lone goal Sunday came at the 31:10 mark when Williams put it in off a fantastic Texas Tech sequence.

Hannah Anderson started it from the backline with a pass to freshman Chloe Soto in the midfield, then she got it to Elise Anderson in the perfect spot. Elise Anderson found Williams in the box and watched her put it in with her left foot.

It was Williams’ 13^th goal of the year, tying her for eighth in most goals in a season as a Red Raider.

Macy Blackburn tore her ACL Oct. 8 against TCU, and she was second in the country in assists when she got hurt. As we learned through this season, however, this Tech squad is deeper than the one she only played three games for last year after a leg injury.

Last year, Blackburn assisted on Tech’s first three goals of the year, got hurt in the third game of the year, and Tech didn’t score for three straight games. They figured it out as time went on, but it obviously wasn’t the same.

Tech scored a goal in both Thursday’s draw against UCF and Sunday’s win against Oklahoma State, and Elise Anderson has taken her spot as well as you could ask at right back.

Stone said Blackburn is arguably one of the best players in the country, so losing her is an obvious blow to any team that you can’t fully replace. However, Elise Anderson’s performance has been important all season long, even when Blackburn was healthy.

“If you’re going to have somebody step in, Elise was the first one off the bench anyway and was getting tons of assists for us and was playing like a starter all year,” Stone said. “I mean, Elise is a starter and has been one, but you can only start two outside backs, so she [was] coming off the bench for Kylie [Bahr] and Macy.”

Two of Anderson’s five assists have been in the last two games, something Tech will welcome as they continue to push through the season.

7 seniors, 7 stories

Stone said every senior on this team has a story.

Hannah Anderson

Through the dark days of COVID, Hannah Anderson has become a leader for this team. The solo captain played every single minute in 2021, basically did the same in 2022 as she made the All-Big 12 First Team, and she was named a Preseason All-Big 12 honoree and a United Soccer Coaches Defender to Watch before this season.

Not only has she led the backline as Tech has allowed just eight goals and 8.8 shots per game in 14 games, but she’s put in four goals this season, none more memorable than the goal with one second remaining against Texas to get the victory in Austin.

Hannah Anderson made her 90^th consecutive start Sunday, and the question will be how many more she makes as Tech finishes the season.

She was the co-captain last year with Charlotte Teeter and is the solo captain this year as a stable presence on what might be Tech soccer’s best team ever.

Penelope Mulenga

Even through missing all of 2020 due to injury, Penelope Mulenga appeared in 60 games and made 29 starts. The thing is, since Sept. 3, she has played just seven minutes.

Stone said even though she hasn’t gotten the minutes she is used to getting because of how good the midfield has been this year, Mulenga has been classy and handled it well while not bringing herself or the team down. It’s something that could’ve fractured the team if they let it, but she didn’t.

Olivia Draguicevich

Olivia Draguicevich probably thought she’d get some more run coming from Northwestern State as the former Southland Conference Player of the Year who was scoring goals left and right, but Stone said Williams and Alex Kerr have been so good that the team had no choice. Even with that, she scored a goal against Abilene Christian to help them get their last non-conference home victory and has clearly been a good presence for this team.

Alex Kerr

Oh, yeah. Alex Kerr. She scored 12 goals in her four years at Vanderbilt, and Stone said earlier this season that Kerr was underutilized there.

That changed quickly at Texas Tech. Her hat trick against North Texas got her to six goals on the season and matched her career-high for a season before September. She now has 10 goals on the year, almost doubling her career output in 17 games.

Gisselle Kozarski

Gisselle Kozarski might have also thought she’d need to put up more goals, but she’s just had two goals as she’s played the left midfielder spot for Tech all year long, getting five assists in 2023. She’s played every game she’s been at Tech for and started the last 36 over 2022 and 2023 to hold the team down, even as a lot has changed around her.

It’s been noted already how important Elise Anderson has been. We’ve called her the 12^th starter for this team, and she’s the only person besides the original starting 11 that has started for Tech this season.

Elise Anderson

Elise Anderson made 26 starts coming into 2023, including the last eight games as Tech turned a corner in 2022, but her contributions were limited to big minutes off the bench until Thursday’s game against UCF.

She has five assists on the season, including on both goals over the weekend in a moment they needed her to step up for Blackburn, who was second in the country in assists when she got hurt.

Stone noted how she came in with two friends, “the Three Musketeers,” referencing Katie Odum and Briley Weatherford, but due to injuries, Elise Anderson is the only one left of them on Tech’s squad.

Madison White

Although it’s easy to forget about her because the backline can make her job easy, goalkeeper Madison White is the single best player on this team.

Stone said it best after the win over TCU when she had a season-high five saves.

“I think when the game gets crazier in terms of chaos in front of her,” Stone said, “the better she gets.”

Stone coached the Atlanta Dash in the defunct Women’s United Soccer Association from 2001-2003, and he said White reminds him so much of goalies he had then because of that.

White has only had to make 48 saves this year, but her save percentage leads the Big 12 at 85.7%, including massive, acrobatic saves in the last four games, games that were either draws or wins by just a single goal.

Besides, she’s shown she can make a lot of saves starting with her very first collegiate appearance.

She’s the career shutout leader at Texas Tech, passing Victoria Esson earlier this year and adding to her total with 36 in her career, 10 of them coming this season.

The season isn’t over yet

White also said something that really foreshadowed what this season could become.

On Sept. 14, Tech had just beaten Houston 3-0 to start Big 12 play, but they didn’t feel like they played their best, especially in the first half.

White had an observation about that game and this team that feels just as accurate every game they play.

“I think, as long as I’ve been at Tech, I’ve been on a lot of great teams, but I don’t know how many teams I’ve been on that have been able to win 3-0 and not play well,” White said. “Not that we didn’t play well, but that was not our best game, and you’re on a team that’s still manhandling another team and is not playing their best, I think that’s really special.

“Especially when we do play our best and we’re beating teams as we have before, I mean, it’s great. It’s really great.”

They’ve been beating teams, and they control their destiny for what would be their first ever Big 12 regular season title. It’s also hard to see how they wouldn’t host at least their first round game of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019.

A win Oct. 23 over Iowa State on the road would seal it, and even a draw would do it if BYU and TCU both draw or lose at some point. No matter what happens, Tech wouldn’t finish lower than third in the Big 12.

Of course, they’d prefer not to take any chances. They know what this feels like, some know what the dark days of COVID felt like, and some know what losing tough games is like.

Hannah Anderson said they’re happy about the win but are concentrating on the next game.

“We always say that the next game is our biggest game, and that’s still true,” Hannah Anderson said. “So we’re happy about it, but honestly, we really don’t want to reflect until we’re done playing soccer, which is hopefully in December,” referencing the Women’s College Cup where the last four teams left in the NCAA Tournament will play for the title.

They’re not letting go as long as they can.