OSU then-junior forward Nichelle Prince (7) during a game against Butler on Nov. 14 at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. Credit: Courtesy of OSU
After two weeks on the road, the Ohio State women’s soccer team returned home to Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium to face the Texas Longhorns in senior forward Nichelle Prince’s first home game since the Rio Olympics.
Prince played for team Canada and took home the bronze in the XXXI Olympiad.
At the end of Friday’s game, the Buckeyes were glad to have Prince back up front.
OSU trailed since the third minute of the game after a goal when Longhorns sophomore forward Alexa Adams put one past redshirt senior goalkeeper Jillian McVicker. But in the 59th minute Prince earned a penalty kick and finished inside the right post to knot the game at one apiece.
Six minutes into overtime, Prince struck again with a header into the back of the net off of a cross from senior forward Lindsay Agnew, sealing a 2-1 victory for the Buckeyes over the Longhorns.
OSU coach Lori Walker didn’t anticipate the game going quite like this.
“No disrespect to Texas, but I think this is about as poor as I’ve seen our team play in the first half,” said Walker, “There was a lot of things we weren’t doing… we did not play the way Ohio State knows how to play, and we found a way to win anyways.”
Agnew shared the sentiment with Walker.
“I don’t think today we played our best soccer,” said Agnew. “It doesn’t always have to be super pretty, and we just got it done and that’s all that really matters. Texas brought a really good team, and they beat us to the ball more.”
Prince took little time to readjust to college soccer after playing in the Olympics, but notes that there are some differences in how the sport is played.
“At international level it’s very structured, and you kind of have a structured play… here you have a little more freedom, you get to be more creative,” Prince said.
Prince also said there was a large difference in the crowd at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium as compared to the thousands of international fans in Rio. Nevertheless, she was overjoyed to be greeted excitedly by her teammates after nine months of being away.
On Monday, September 12, the Buckeyes will take on No. 7 Brigham Young in Columbus.
