MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Some of the questions veteran West Virginia women’s soccer coach Nikki Izzo-Brown has could be answered as early as Thursday night when the Mountaineers kickoff their 2025 campaign with a 7 p.m. home match against 15th-ranked Virginia.
Entering her 30th season at WVU, Izzo-Brown is hopeful where her team’s offense is to come from isn’t one, as the Mountaineers returns their top two goalscorers from last season’s 12-5-3 campaign that ended with a loss in penalty kicks at Kentucky in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
Senior forwards Taylor White and Ajanae Respass are back after both found the back of the net seven times in 2024.
“It’s always reassuring that we have experience when it comes to putting the ball in the back of the net,” Izzo-Brown said. “We feel that Ajanae and Taylor will bring that experience to us and that’s the expectation that I talk a lot about with upperclassmen. Pressure is a privilege, but it’s also the reality that you guys are experienced and know the expectation. I would probably say that no coach always feels that we’re ready, and excited that we’re kicking off with such a great team like UVA, but having those two reassures me and I have a lot of confidence going forward in both of them.”
The matchup with the Cavaliers, picked seventh among 17 teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference Poll and off a 13-5-1 season that ended in the second round of the NCAAs, marks the first of seven straight non-conference matches for the Mountaineers. Four of those will take place at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium, but the Mountaineers are home only once in September and play their first three league matches on the road. WVU has six home matches in October.
“It’ll be a tradeoff and the kids and team will see that and maybe feel good that we’re going to do a lot of bonding on the road, but it’ll come back to benefit us the next month,” Izzo-Brown said.
For Respass, the goal is to build off a successful first season at WVU after transferring from Oregon and proving to be a natural fit on the roster.
“We might not have gotten her on the first go, but [senior associate head coach] Lisa Stoia did such a great job recruiting her out of high school that it left a lasting impression on her when she did go into the portal from Oregon,” Izzo-Brown said. “What Ajanae was looking for was a West Virginia family and West Virginia home where she could do what we believed she could do here.”
White is a three-year contributor with the Mountaineers and has scored 16 goals over the last two seasons. Izzo-Brown believes she’s in for more success in her final collegiate campaign.
“She’s incredibly special. When you have kids that have trusted the process and grind to be the leading scorer, it really shows that she trusted the development and relationships here,” Izzo-Brown said. “She really loves the team, loves the community and loves the university. I’m really proud of where T is right now as an upcoming senior.“
Goalkeeper Mackenzie Smith is also a returning starter. She allowed 19 goals, made 54 saves and posted a 1.06 goals against average in her first season with extended action.
The defense will work to overcome the loss of Annika Leslie.
“She just signed pro and was an all-Big 12 player, so that’s always hard to replace,” Izzo-Brown said. “But we feel that Roxanne Vilain, who came in last year and played minutes for us, is also somebody that can do that job and do it well. We do expect big things from Mack and experiences she’ll continue to do in training and throughout to keep developing. We have Nyema [Ingleton] returning, Olivia Shertzer returning and Gianna [Koss] returning. We know that experience does matter and through all the experiences these kids have had, my hope is we inject them as quick as we can against a team like Virginia.”
The Mountaineers are seeking consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five seasons. WVU was picked fourth among 16 Big 12 teams in the league’s preseason poll.
“We’re never satisfied until the end of the year if we finish No. 1,” Izzo-Brown said. “Polls give you a little bit of confidence maybe and I appreciate that our conference voted that way and I appreciate the fact that we have been ranked that high in such a great conference. I don’t want to minimize that compliment, because there are great programs and for us to be ahead of a lot of those really speaks volumes of our program and what we have going in. But at the end of the day, it’s huge for recruits potentially. More importantly, for me, it’s how we finish at the end of the year.”