MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia goalkeeper Bailey Herfurth is no stranger to clean sheets and entered Thursday’s match against No. 20 BYU with five this season and 15 for her career.
Herfurth’s 16th shutout required more work than usual.
The redshirt senior made nine saves, and several of them denied the Cougars of quality scoring chances, while six came after halftime, as did a pair of goals from Sophia Nickel as the 16th-ranked Mountaineers secured an important 2-0 victory at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.
“Everybody did their part, but you have to give a special shoutout to Bailey, because she was incredible,” WVU head coach Nikki Izzo-Brown said.
The result enables WVU (8-1-2, 3-1-1 Big 12) to move into a four-way tie for second place in the Big 12 Conference standings with BYU (7-3-2, 3-1-1), Baylor and Kansas. Each of those teams remains three points behind league leader Texas Tech.
The Cougars nearly scored in the 8th minute when defender Bella Woods put a well-placed shot on target from distance that required Herfurth to leave her feet and deflect it over the goal.
“I haven’t seen a center back shoot a ball yet this season, so just tracking the flight and trusting,” Herfurth said.
An early save of substance helped Herfurth settle in.
“It definitely boosts confidence and you have to remember we have another 80 or so minutes left, so just recuperating and understanding there’s still so much soccer to be played,” she said.
That was the first of Herfurth’s three saves in the opening half, while the Cougars controlled more of the match and prevented the Mountaineers from recording a shot on goal.
But WVU, which has been a strong second-half offensive team for much of the season, prolonged that trend and got a goal from Nickel less than 3 minutes into the second half to break the ice. On the play, Saige Wimes sent a cross into the 18-yard box that was handled by Maya Leoni, who dropped off a pass to Nickel and her right-footed shot was deflected by BYU keeper Chelsea Peterson, but trickled just beyond her and over the goal line.
“We call her money. She’s not just a nickel,” Izzo-Brown said. “She’s hard, cold cash. She’s big time. She’s composed, cool. She’s been incredible. So proud of her.”
That was all the offense Herfurth needed as she continued to stand tall between the posts, stymying several chances from BYU in the visitors’ effort to draw even.
“A big part of it comes from our backline, and them helping me out,” Herfurth said. “I can’t do it without them helping out in front of me and they give me easier saves to make.”
As the Cougars continued to press forward, it opened up counterattacks for WVU, and the home team took full advantage of one when Abbey Olexa was the beneficiary of a through ball and got off a shot that required Peterson to make a sprawling save, leaving an open net for Nickel, who put home the rebound with 9:40 remaining to double the Mountaineers’ lead.
“She does her job and keeps it simple, but gets it done for us,” Izzo-Brown said. “It’s just incredible to see her do it.”
For Nickel, it was her third consecutive match with a goal, the first multi-goal effort of her career and her team-leading seventh goal this season.
WVU has now scored 14 of its 17 goals this season after halftime.
“BYU’s first 15 minutes are like a tsunami,” Izzo-Brown said. “I watched them do that against TCU. For us to deal with that and all the numbers forward was incredible. For us to keep it as a shutout, I was really proud. We had to make some adjustments, but it’s the players that win games. Tactically, we go in and watch some video, see some areas we can be better and the players execute.”