MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The last time West Virginia’s women’s soccer team took to Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium for a match, the Mountaineers could hardly envision the position they’d be in entering Friday’s 7 p.m. home finale against TCU.
Having lost three straight, WVU (9-4-2, 4-4-1) is in sole possession of eighth place in the Big 12 Conference and has work to do down the stretch to secure its spot in the league tournament, which features the top eight finishing teams among 16.
Defeating the Horned Frogs (5-9-1, 2-7) would be a good place to start, particularly considering the Mountaineers are 6-1-2 at home this season and TCU has already been eliminated from conference tournament qualification.
“It’s a cruel sport at times, but it’s going to boil down to what I’m going to do at training,” veteran WVU head coach Nikki Izzo-Brown said. “If we’re not paying attention to some details or putting ourselves in position for [opposing] PKs to happen, it ultimately falls on me and I have to be better with that. That is definitely something I’m committed to, because I care so much about this senior class and I want them to end with a bang. But also, we have been playing well and we just have to create our own luck.”
Following a 1-0 home loss to Central Florida in the most recent home match, the Mountaineers lost a pair of road games 2-1 at Texas Tech and then at Oklahoma State. An early 1-0 lead against the Red Raiders was erased by a first-half goal on a penalty kick, while the Cowgirls notched their winning goal on a PK with 2 minutes to play last Sunday.
“This group knows that we really just have to lock in and pay attention to some details,” Izzo-Brown said. “Obviously, losing games with PKs is not something we want to continue to do, and giveaway goals like that. They’re very aware of that and they’re very aware that’s something we don’t want to continue, so we’re going to lock in these next couple days to make sure we honor our seniors.”
Offense could be at a premium in the matchup with TCU considering the Mountaineers are 11th in the league with 1.4 goals per game and the Horned Frogs rank 12th at 1.2. WVU is among the top Big 12 teams in goals allowed at .8 on average, good for fourth best.
Sophia Nickel of West Virginia and Emma Yolinsky of TCU have been offensive catalysts for their respective teams with eight goals apiece.
WVU will also play next Thursday at Cincinnati and is out to build momentum over its final two regular-season matches.
“Our league is so strong this year and we knew that going in. We just have to continue to stay focused on getting better and whatever that looks like,” Izzo-Brown said. “Winning the day and every training session, but we have to get that momentum so we can feel really good about completing a 90-minute game.”