KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Three second-half goals pushed the No. 13 West Virginia women’s soccer team to a 3-0 win over Oklahoma in the quarterfinals of the 2018 Big 12 Soccer Championship on Sunday at Swope Soccer Village.
Knotted in a tie and searching for its first goal since defeating the Sooners (7-10-2, 3-5-1) in Norman, Okla. on Oct. 21, the Mountaineers wasted little time in the second half, as seniors Nadya Gill and Sh’Nia Gordon connected in the 46th minute.
Gill pushed the ball ahead to the end line before sending a cross into the box. Gordon received the ball through traffic near the penalty hash and immediately directed her shot toward the right post and out of the reach of Oklahoma goalkeeper McKinely Crone.
“This team has unfinished business,” Izzo-Brown said. “It was all about our tempo, moving the ball a little bit quicker and doing the little extra things. I thought Nadya and Nia did a great job. Everything is about tempo, and for us to go out and do it 28 seconds in — it wasn’t my battle cry, but I’ll take it. We wanted to get on them early and set the tone early. That’s exactly what we did.”
Twenty-one minutes later, Gill got in on the scoring action, as she pounced on a deflected ball near the right post and sent a low shot across the goal line and toward the left post for her second goal of the season.
In the waning minutes of the match, sophomore forward Lauren Segalla gave the Mountaineers a two-goal insurance. Defended and driving toward the net, Crone blocked Segalla’s initial attempt at the top of the box. The ball bounced over the Sooner and Segalla pursued, chasing the ball into the goal box before scoring on an empty net.
The Mountaineers finished with an 26-8 advantage in shots, 9-1 advantage in shots on goal and 9-4 edge in corner kicks. Crone finished the game with six saves. WVU goalkeeper Rylee Foster had one.
“It was huge,” Izzo-Brown said of WVU’s shutout. “It was huge for us to tighten up. It was huge for us to make sure we took care of our defensive responsibilities. That senior leadership in the back is so important, and I know they’re proud of this performance.”
With the win, career victory No. 350 for coach Nikki Izzo-Brown and earned in the program’s 500th match, the Mountaineers (12-4-3, 7-2) advance to the championship semifinal for the sixth straight season.
The Mountaineers return to Swope Soccer Village at 8 p.m. on Friday for a semifinal match against the winner of No. 3-seed Texas or No. 6-seed Kansas.
