It was a long shot. The Oklahoma State Cowgirls knew that going into their Big 12 season finale against Colorado.

The Buffaloes, who are ranked No. 18 in the country, beat the Cowgirls, 5-0, on Thursday in Boulder. The Cowgirls (7-8-4, 3-6-2 in Big 12) missed the Big 12 Tournament for the second straight season.

Entering the game, Oklahoma State needed three things to happen to sneak into the Big 12 Tournament. The Cowgirls needed to beat Colorado and then needed West Virginia and Arizona State to lose.

It wasn’t to be, even with the loss. West Virginia and Cincinnati tied, 0-0, while Arizona State fell to BYU, 1-0. The Cougars will be the No. 1 seed in the tournament next week.

OSU’s Season Ends

Arizona State didn’t make the tournament after its loss. But by tying Cincinnati, the Mountaineers snuck into the Big 12 Tournament as the No. 8 seed and will face BYU in the first round on Monday in Kansas City.

Colorado will be the No. 4 seed and play No. 5 Kansas in the first round. Other matchups include No. 2 Texas Tech vs. No. 7 UCF and No. 3 Baylor vs. No. 6 Houston.

The Cowgirls played six of the eight teams that advanced to the Big 12 Tournament and the only one they beat was West Virginia. The other five matches all ended in losses. All six of those teams were among the Top 16 seeds in the NCAA Tournament’s most recent seeding release.

Oklahoma State will learn if it has any players on the All-Big 12 team either this weekend or next week. The only Cowgirl on the All-Big 12 preseason team was Laudan Wilson.

Sonora Defini led the Cowgirls with eight goals this season, followed by Wilson with five and Emma Jensen and Keaton Mitchell with four each. Jensen and Emmy Hedden led OSU with five assists each. Defini was one of three Cowgirls that finished the season with 10 or more points, leading with 19. Jensen had 13 points and Wilson had 12 points. Wilson and Keaton each had two game-winning goals.

Avery Bass had most of the work in goal for Oklahoma State, finishing with a record of 5-6-3 with two shutouts. She allowed 23 goals, had 46 saves, 1.46 goals against average and faced 186 shots.

Logan Marks took the remaining games in goal, with a record of 2-2-1 and one shutout. She faced 48 shots, allowed nine goals, had 16 saves and finished with a goal against average of 1.82.