MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Having passed its lone test outside Morgantown over the opening month of the regular season, the 7th-ranked West Virginia women’s soccer team returns to the friendly confines of Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium seeking to prolong its unbeaten start to the 2026 season in Sunday’s 7 p.m. match against Marshall.
The Mountaineers (4-0) had been scheduled to play two contests over four days last week in the Northeast, but were instead left with one after last Thursday’s game at Princeton was canceled due to inclement weather.
The schedule change made it so that WVU played just once across its five-day trip, though the Mountaineers made the most of it thanks to Saige Wimes’ first goal this season with 4:20 remaining, which made all the difference in a 2-1 victory at Army West Point last Sunday.
“I know we have a lot of kids from that area and I know they wanted to go home and play, and obviously, Princeton is a great opponent, so we were very disappointed, but you can’t control the weather,” WVU coach Nikki Izzo-Brown said. “I think that’s our third match in my 30-year history here that was canceled, so it was disappointing. To get that ‘W’ says a lot, because it was a long stretch for one game.”
All the offense produced by both teams came after halftime, including the first goal this season from Abbey Olexa that allowed West Virginia to break the ice at the 64:23 mark. Only 3:17 later, however, the Black Knights pulled even on Bella Conti’s goal, forcing the Mountaineers to score late to make it four victories in as many matches.
That continued a theme of stellar second-half offense for West Virginia, which has seven of its eight goals after halftime this season. Olivia Shertzer’s goal in the 34th minute of a 2-1 win against Penn State is the only time the Mountaineers have scored in the opening half.
“Great coaching at halftime. I’m just teasing,” Izzo-Brown said. “Unfortunately, we’re getting a little bit of a feel for the opponent. We don’t want to wait and we want to play 90 minutes. Some of it is execution and some of it is the game, but the girls need to recognize that we have to get on opponents early, because sometimes that clock will run out in the second half.”
In Marshall, the Mountaineers will oppose a team that enters Thursday night’s home contest against Murray State with a 3-1-1 mark.
The Herd suffered a 4-0 loss to High Point on August 20, and is unbeaten in three matches since with seven goals.
MU has 10 goals through five matches, including three goals in three separate games. Wiktoria Mikrut has been the offensive catalyst with four goals, including all three in a draw versus Belmont.
The victory at Army marked WVU’s first match this season without Sophia Nickel scoring.
Nickel paces the Mountaineer attack with three goals, while five teammates have found the back of the net once.
Even with quality offensive balance, defense has been a calling card for Izzo-Brown’s team, which has allowed only two goals.
“Everybody has to be on the same page,” Izzo-Brown said. “We play in a system that for one player’s action there’s an equal amount of reaction with somebody else in the same we’re occupying. So it really matters and it has to be super disciplined in the back. It can’t be free for all.”
Sunday’s matchup with Marshall marks the first of three straight at home for WVU, which welcomes Connecticut on September 13 and begins Big 12 play September 18 against Baylor.
That means the Mountaineers have the luxury of a full week of preparation before facing both the Herd and Huskies.
“We try to be as strategic as we can in scheduling,” Izzo-Brown said. “When you lose a game, there’s definitely a periodization plan behind it. But it does allow us to really look at what we’ve done in the last four matches and to address some things that maybe we haven’t been able to do. When you’re playing two games and have to give a day off before a game, you don’t get a whole lot in. So I do like the fact that we’ll be able to develop of what and who we are, so I’m excited for this week.”