OKLAHOMA CITY (Sept. 10, 2020) – The 2004 regular season had been rather routine for Oklahoma Christian's women's soccer team, as the Eagles posted an 8-10 record. Fortunately for OC, a 3-4 Sooner Athletic Conference mark was just barely good enough to qualify the team for the league tournament.

Few imagined OC's sixth-seeded squad would last long in the postseason, but instead – led by a gaggle of young scorers and a goalkeeper who practically stood on her head – coach Adam Basic's Eagles took the campus on a wild run that resulted in two championships and didn't end until the NAIA national tournament.

OC lost 1-0 at Oklahoma City University in the regular-season finale on Oct. 27 to drop to the No. 6 seed in the six-team SAC tournament. Two days later, they made the short trip to Bethany for their first-round game against third-seeded Southern Nazarene. Goalkeeper Chelsee Truesdell posted a shutout and freshman Jansen Graves scored goals in the 52nd and 85th minutes in OC's 2-0 win.

On Nov. 1, the Eagles visited SAC regular-season champion Northwestern Oklahoma State in Alva. Northwestern's only loss to that point had been to NCAA Division II Texas Woman's, but the Eagles hung right with the Rangers. Graves scored four minutes into the second half off an assist by fellow freshman Kristin Brown, but less than two minutes from the end of regulation time, Northwestern equalized on a goal by Elisha Hall.

Unperturbed, the Eagles collected themselves and in the second overtime – in the 106th minute – Brown collected a ball that had been cleared by the Rangers' goalkeeper and slid a shot into the net for the win, advancing OC into the SAC title-game match, again on the road, at OCU.

On a rain-soaked, muddy field, the Eagles prevailed 1-0, with sophomore Rachel Wrinkle converting on a 30-yard free kick in the 47th minute. OC's defense shined, too – Truesdell made six saves, recording her eighth shutout of the season, and in the 54th minute, defender Candace Spencer helped the Eagles avoid disaster.

Truesdell had dived to make a save on an OCU shot and the ball rolled loose, allowing OCU's Amanda Jones to attempt another shot. Spencer reached the ball just in time, clearing it away from the goal to end the threat. The improbable SAC tournament title was the second in three seasons for the Eagles, but they only were getting started.

OC headed back to Alva for the NAIA Region VI tournament and on Oct. 8 faced a third game against OCU in 13 days. Brown again proved to be the offensive hero. In the 41st minute, Wrinkle's free kick was misplayed by OCU's goalkeeper and Brown took advantage, knocking home the loose ball to put the Eagles ahead.

In the 64th minute, Brown scored, again off a free kick by Wrinkle. From the center of the field, Wrinkle angled her free kick to the left and Brown, making a run down the left side, shot into the far right corner of the net. OCU outshot the Eagles 15-9, but Truesdell posted another clean sheet in the goal, making six saves, and the 2-0 win advanced OC to the regional title game.

The next day, OC again faced mighty No. 22-ranked Northwestern and it again was a tight match. The Rangers took the lead in the 14th minute on a goal by Sherina Wood, but the Eagles tied the game in the 75th minute on an unassisted goal by Susan Myers off a corner kick. The deadlock remained through the end of regulation and a pair of 10-minute overtimes, leading to a shootout.

Spencer and Brown converted their penalty kicks in the first two rounds for OC, giving the Eagles a 2-1 edge, but two saves by Northwestern goalkeeper Delydia Gay (on shots by Megan Childers and Wrinkle) helped the Rangers go up 3-2 after four rounds. Needing a save to preserve her team's season, Truesdell came up with one in the fifth round against Wood, and junior Jessica McElvany converted her pressure-filled kick to tie the shootout at 3-3.

That meant the shootout progressed into sudden death, and the Eagles proved up to the challenge.

Truesdell recorded her third save of the shootout – she was credited with 11 saves in the match – stopping a shot by the Rangers' sixth shooter, Ilisha Hall. Then freshman Meagan Pless – known today as Meagan Anderson, the Eagles' head coach – converted her penalty kick, burying it in the lower right corner of the goal to give the Eagles a 4-3 shootout win.

"Right. I always went right," Anderson said this week.

Although the game officially went down as a 1-1 tie, the shootout win over Northwestern advanced the Eagles to the NAIA national tournament in Santa Barbara, Calif. That's where the magic-carpet ride ended, as William Jewell (Mo.) beat OC 7-0 on Nov. 23, ending the Eagles' season at 12-11-1.

Truesdell, whose soccer career ended with the national-tournament loss, made the College Sports Information Directors Association of America's prestigious Academic All-America list for 2004. She remains OC's career record-holder in saves with 611 and shutouts (29), and her nine shutouts in 2004 matched her own OC single-season mark, set in 2002.

Brown eventually tied Piper Coalson atop OC's career goal-scoring list, recording 54 during her career that ended with the 2007 season.

Anderson went on to start for the 2006 OC squad that won the SAC title and went undefeated for 19 games while posting the best record in school history at 17-2-2. Soon after her graduation from OC, she joined then-head coach Randall Robison's staff when he was hired in 2008. She spent five seasons as an assistant coach at OC, helping the Eagles to a pair of double-digit-win seasons in 2008 and 2009.

She served five seasons as the head coach at Edmond North High School before becoming the Eagles' head coach in May 2017.