WASHINGTON, D.C. — The No. 17 West Virginia men’s soccer team’s season came to an end in the second round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament with a 1-0 loss at No. 8 Georgetown on Sunday.
The Mountaineers (14-7-0) and Hoyas (13-4-3) played 87 scoreless minutes before the deciding goal was scored at 87:01 when Georgetown defender Dylan Nealis found the back of the net for an unassisted goal. Sophomore goalkeeper Steven Tekesky made a career-high 11 saves in the loss.
“I thought we played really hard,” West Virginia head coach Marlon LeBlanc said. “If you look at the stat sheet, you’re going to get a very on-sided run of how this game went. I thought we had some real fight in us, some real effort, and I’m proud of my team for what we did against a lot. Our kids were fantastic on the day, they fought tooth and nail, and I thought we had to play against more than just Georgetown today. This is the first time we’ve been shut out in quite some time, and that’s a credit to our opponent playing very hard, they’re a good team.”
Even though the Mountaineers had a few chances to score, overall, they really struggled to get their offense going. They only had 11 shots and just five shots on goal throughout the entire game. The Hoyas dominated the stat sheet — with an advantage in shots, shots on goal and corner kicks. Georgetown goalkeeper Ethan Koehler tallied five saves.
This was the 13th appearance in the NCAA tournament for the West Virginia men’s soccer team, and fifth in LeBlanc’s 13-year tenure. With the loss, the Mountaineers fall to 6-13-0 all-time in the NCAA tournament
Georgetown advances to the third round next weekend and will face Michigan State.
“Obviously, this team is going to hurt for a little bit, and we’re disappointed that we didn’t win today,” LeBlanc added. We’re a team that’s returning 10 starters next year, and quite a few other guys who contributed to us being one of the better teams in America this year. We’re coming back with a lot of good players, with a lot of experience winning games and scoring goals. The future is very bright. Sure, we’re going to miss Joey, Jorge, Rushawn and Stephen, but the foundation is laid with 10 starters, and one heck of a team, coming back.
“We’re going to let this one hurt for a little bit, but the message to the guys was that we have to make sure this game is in Morgantown next year and not on the road. It’s unfortunate that the pitch was in such rough shape, I thought it was a neutralizer for how we like to play, and the conditions made it difficult for us to get in any type of rhythm.”
