MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The first two weeks of the season could hardly have gone better West Virginia.
The Mountaineers (3-0) protected home field three times in as many matches, posted two wins over 2025 NCAA Tournament-qualifying squads and have established roles and an identity while starting in the exact fashion they desired.
Next comes a new challenge for No. 7 WVU, which plays at Princeton at 7 p.m. Thursday for what marks the team’s first match this season away from Morgantown. WVU will remain on the road over the weekend and play again at 1 p.m. Sunday at Army.
“I’m excited to see them on the road,” veteran West Virginia head coach Nikki Izzo-Brown said. “Just being able to win on the road, it’ll be a new challenge and a new focus. Princeton is going to be very tough. They’re a high-quality team and we know they’ll set different complications for us, but we’ll watch some film of them, see what the matchup will be like and just stay focused on what we need to do.”
The Mountaineers have been a dominant second-half squad and have outscored the opposition 5-0 after halftime. WVU has scored and conceded one goal in the opening half and has yet to lead at the intermission.
“I thought we started well against Penn State,” Izzo-Brown said. “It was just unfortunate — one shot, one goal. I’m the biggest critic out there and I would tell you slow start [against] Dayton, a little slow start [Sunday against Duquesne] figuring this out. We’ll keep leaning on the leaders and keep recognizing what we have to do to go a complete 90.”
The Mountaineers’ most recent match Sunday was scoreless late until Sophia Nickel scored in the 77th minute for the first of WVU’s two goals.
It marked the third goal this season for Nickel, who has scored in every contest, and all have come in the second half.
“I feel like we start to settle in and get to know the other team and how we want to play against them, which helps us knowing in the midfield where the people are going to be trying to run most likely,” Nickel said. “Once we figure that out, we settle in and we’re able to play our game knowing where the other team is.”
The Tigers finished 8-6-3 in 2025 and are 1-1 to start this season, having defeated Loyola (Md.) and lost to Syracuse.
Army, meanwhile, is 2-2 entering Thursday’s match against Monmouth. The Black Knights were outscored 10-1 in losses to Air Force and Colorado, before posting consecutive victories over William & Mary and Vermont.
The Mountaineers, meanwhile, have surrendered one goal — that early on against Penn State — and have otherwise been stingy defensively with goalkeeper Bailey Herfurth picking up where she left off following a strong 2025.
Izzo-Brown says it takes a total team effort in numerous areas to be as stout defensively as what her team has been thus far.
“First and foremost, we definitely value shutouts,” Izzo-Brown said. “We know when we get into league play that you can get a point just for a shutout, so that’ll be very important. The analytics are really big now and we look at loose ball duals. That’ll recognize a lot of the grit and what we’re doing with that, so that’s going to be important. First and second ball duals. There will be a lot of different things we’ll look at depending on which line we’re talking about, and if it’s the defensive line, midfield or forwards. There’s a lot of things that we do look at when it comes to analytics and maybe if it’s an area of pressing or an area of entry balls in the attack, we look at those.”