MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Dan Stratford speaks eloquently with a British accent when discussing the men’s soccer program at his alma mater that he now leads. The London native and first-year WVU head coach however did not mask his displeasure when describing Friday’s events that have denied his Mountaineers a chance at the Mid-American Conference championship, and quite possibly a spot in the NCAA Tournament as well.
WVU (6-3-1, 4-3-1 MAC) was scheduled to host SIU-Edwardsville in their final regular season match Sunday afternoon. A win for the Mountaineers combined with a Bowling Green loss or tie in their matchup with Northern Illinois would net West Virginia the MAC regular season championship and an automatic qualifying spot in the NCAA’s.
The MAC announced shortly after noon that the match would not be played. The statement included that the match, “has been canceled due to COVID-19 protocols within the SIUE men’s soccer program. The game has been determined a no-contest and will not be rescheduled.”
Stratford says there is a different reason entirely for the cancellation.
“It is injury-related. I can’t say they are full strength but who is this time of the season? I can tell you, hand on heart, they don’t have a single COVID issue, or certainly a COVID issue since their last game nine days ago against Northern Illinois,” Stratford said on Friday’s MetroNews Citynet Statewide Sportsline.
“I was disappointed in the league’s statement today that claimed that this was a COVID-related issue. Quite frankly, that is just simply not true. This is an injury-related issue. This is a numbers game for them. They have enough to play the game. They have enough within the legal limits and parameters of the NCAA rules to play the game. The biggest issue here is that NCAA rule that states that a forfeiture is considered a no-contest regardless of the reason.”
.@DanStrats joins @TonyCaridi, @BradHowe07, and @HunterWvu88bgn to discuss the @WVUMensSoccer game on Sunday being canceled against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. WATCH: https://t.co/yCFQ3nDJuy pic.twitter.com/BGMUAdNicr
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) April 16, 2021
Later in the afternoon, the MAC released a revised statement, saying: “The SIUE at West Virginia men’s soccer match scheduled for Sunday, April 18th has been canceled due to issues with the SIUE men’s soccer team being below the minimum player threshold. The game has been determined a no-contest.”
The match was inconsequential for SIUE, who was guaranteed to finish last in the six-team conference.
“What is disappointing is that it didn’t mean a great deal for SIUE as a team. They’re currently in last place. I will go a step further, my honest opinion is that if SIUE did have something to play for this weekend, they would be traveling to Morgantown and this game would be taking place. That is the most frustrating part of all of this. I don’t believe it is a case of SIUE not being able to play or can’t play, I believe it is a case that they won’t play. That is infuriating.”
Stratford now further laments the result of Wednesday’s match at Bowling Green, where the sides played to a scoreless draw.
“I am incredibly proud of them. I cannot fault their effort. There were a ton of unknowns going into the season. Where we are right now, that’s where the disappointing thing is. We felt we should have won on Wednesday against Bowling Green and that would have put us in a great position.
“I woke up Thursday morning, putting it in perspective overnight and thinking we are a win away from guaranteeing second (place) and potentially getting the AQ (automatic qualifier) and winning our conference or putting ourselves in an incredible position to be an at-large team and make the national tournament. Hours later, I am dealing with the circumstances we found ourselves in. It was difficult to share that with the guys today that you don’t get an opportunity to fight for a title.”
Stratford attempted to find a non-conference opponent to fill Sunday’s slot, but to no avail.
“It is the perfect storm. We don’t have a conference tournament this year, which was a decision we collectively made. We are watching all these other conference tournaments take place right now. And as a result, there’s nobody left to play. This isn’t like two or three weeks ago when it would have been very easy to pick up a fixture. The only teams playing right now are either in their conference tournament or that team has been shut down because they are not in their conference tournament.”
By not playing the match vs. SIUE, WVU has no path to a league title. They must hope for an at-large bid Monday into the NCAA Tournament. Those bids are at a premium this year in a COVID-compressed field down to 36 teams from the usual 48. A point in their favor is the RPI ranking. WVU was 7th in the NCAA metric entering Friday.
“We are frozen, if you like,” Stratford said. “On top of that, we go into Monday for the selection show stuck at 6-3-1 without the potential extra win, without perhaps the security of the AQ if we had won the conference on Sunday. We are obviously crossing our fingers that our body of work to this point, the quality of our non-conference wins with Charlotte and Marshall both being ranked in the top twelve in the country, will be enough to get us over the line.”