MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — No. 19 West Virginia wrapped up an unbeaten mark in Big 12 Conference play with a 2-1 victory against Cincinnati on a rainy Thursday night at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.
The result was not enough for the Mountaineers (13-2-3, 8-0-3) to claim the regular season conference championship, which instead went to TCU (15-2-1, 9-1-1) after the Horned Frogs handled business later in the night by defeating Houston, 2-0.
TCU finishes the regular season with 28 points in league play to the Mountaineers’ 27. The two teams did not square off this season.
“It’s been incredible,” WVU head coach Nikki Izzo-Brown said. “We don’t really dodge anybody in the non-conference, so by playing Virginia and Penn State, it really just shows what we need to do to get prepared for conference play, but it also showed everybody the great moments and that we could’ve won those games and just fell short. Anytime you have failure, it’s the best way to teach and we made some great strides by losing.”
Needing a win to assure itself of no worse than second-place finish in the league, the Mountaineers struck 24:26 into the match when Ajanae Respass took a crossing feed from Maddie Levy and sent a shot past Bearcats’ goalkeeper Camryn Miller to give the home team a 1-0 lead.
“That was a great early ball by Maddie,” Respass said.
For Repass, it was her second goal of the season and first in 11 matches after she accounted for seven in 2024.
“It’s huge for her confidence for how hard she works,” Izzo-Brown said. “Everyone would say nobody empties the tank like Ajanae, so I was happy she was rewarded with a goal.”
The Mountaineers did not surrender a shot on goal in the opening half and settled for the one-goal lead at the intermission.
Moderate rain began to fall at halftime and it intensified by the start of the second half.. Still, WVU wasted no time adding to its lead as Anna Hauer blasted a shot into the upper 90 to beat Miller and make it 2-0 just 1:08 into the second half. Levy recorded her second assist on what proved to be the winning goal.
“It wasn’t miserable, but we knew the pressure was on and we had to get another goal, so I’m glad we got another goal at the beginning of the half to kind of seal the game,” Respass said. “It made things less chaotic.”
The Bearcats got on the scoreboard just over 11 minutes later off a free kick that bounced around in the 18-yard box and found the foot of Maddie Swingle, who slipped a shot past WVU keeper Bailey Herfurth.
As conditions worsened, the Bearcats were unable to manage another shot on goal after cutting their deficit in half and Swingle’s score proved to be the team’s only shot Herfurth faced.
Miller finished with four saves, three of which came after halftime.
It marks the Mountaineers’ first unbeaten season in Big 12 play since 2016 and their fifth overall.
“That 2016 team not only went undefeated, but nobody scored a goal on them,” Izzo-Brown said. “So that’s a little bit different, but both teams are special, both teams were grinding and focused to win. I’m really proud of this team. It’s amazing not to lose in conference play.”
West Virginia, the No. 2 seed in the Big 12 Tournament, is slated to face seventh-seeded Kansas at 6:30 p.m. (ET) on Monday at TCU. All Big 12 quarterfinal and semifinal matches are at TCU before the championship November 8 at Baylor.
The #Big12SOC regular season comes to an end… but the journey is far from over ⚽️
The OFFICIAL 2025 Big 12 Soccer Tournament Presented By Allstate Bracket. pic.twitter.com/DVQSC6khxK
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) October 31, 2025