MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — If the favored teams advance in NCAA second round games in Charlottesville, Virginia, West Virginia will have a second opportunity to avenge a regular season defeat.
The Mountaineers (11-7-2) will face Central Connecticut State at UVA’s Klockner Stadium Friday at 4pm. The host Cavaliers will face Washington State immediately following. The winners will meet in an NCAA Sweet 16 matchup Sunday at 5pm.
West Virginia has already knocked off one of the teams to defeat them in the regular season. The Mountaineers blanked No. 25 Georgetown 2-0 in Washington, D.C. last Saturday in the opening round. Alina Stahl scored both Mountaineer goals in the 13th and 40th minutes.
“We just wanted to redeem ourselves and let everyone see what kind of team we could be,” said veteran WVU head coach Nikki Izzo-Brown.
The Mountaineers entered the Georgetown match with twelve days of rest after falling to Kansas in the Big 12 quarterfinals on November 3rd.
“The rest helped us but everyone did their job, I talked about a lot of different heroes. You can point to Alina and you can point to Riley (Foster) but to be honest with you, everyone did their job. I think that is what the difference was.”
Friday’s opponent for the Mountaineers, Central Connecticut State (13-4-4) also went on the road and pulled a significant opening-round upset. The Blue Devils blanked No. 4 seed Rutgers, 1-0. CCSU has won ten consecutive matches, including the Northeast Conference Tournament title.
“We are not going to take them lightly. We know that they are a tough opponent. They have some very talented players from the back and all the way up. We are preparing for them just like we would prepare for any top team in the country.”
Central has conceded just 17 goals in 21 matches. They rank 40th in the nation in goals against average.
“They are definitely a very focused defensive team. They don’t give a lot up. They are a team that is very committed to defending. It is going to be tough to break them down.”
WVU is making their 20th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and they have advanced to the second round for the fifth consecutive year.
“With us being such a young team, I don’t know if we really comprehended ‘one-and-done’. That kind of opened our eyes being at the Big 12 (tournament) and understanding that it is ‘one-and-done’ and that was something we took away from that loss.”
“When you are playing to get to the next round, we just have to keep engraining that in our young team’s minds but also behind our captains and our senior leadership.”
This is WVU’s second trip to Charlottesville this season. The Mountaineers fell to the No. 1 seeded Cavaliers 4-1 on September 1st.
“We have an understanding of what that environment can bring but at the end of the day we are just focused on what we can do and what we can bring.”
The second weekend of the NCAA Tournament features 32 teams at eight sites, with the winners advancing to the Elite 8 over Thanksgiving weekend.
“It is hard to play Friday-Sunday. It is brutal with a young team and just understanding that swing and turnaround is going to be tough. We are going to take care of what we have to take care of on Friday and then just approach Sunday as if you are playing for an Elite Eight spot. So we’ve got to give it all.”