MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The No. 6-ranked West Virginia women’s soccer team returns to Morgantown for its final home match of the fall on Friday against No. 11 Kansas. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.
“It’s going to be a great matchup,” WVU coach Nikki Izzo-Brown said. “We have two of the top teams in the nation kicking off, and both teams still have a championship at stake. It’ll be a hard-fought battle and it’s an opportunity to win a big one at home.”
Friday marks the 11th meeting between the Mountaineers (6-1, 6-1 Big 12) and Jayhawks (4-2, 4-2). WVU leads the all-time series, 7-2-1, including 2-1 in Morgantown. West Virginia won the first seven meetings from 2012-17, while KU has gone 2-0-1 since then. Last year, the two schools met twice with WVU settling for a 1-1 draw on Oct. 24, at Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence, Kan., before the Jayhawks earned a 2-0 win on Nov. 3 in the Big 12 Championship Quarterfinal in Kansas City, Mo.
WVU is coming off a 1-0 win at Oklahoma on Oct. 23, at John Crain Field in Norman. Junior forward Alina Stahl netted the game-winning goal in the 20th minute to help the Mountaineers claim their fourth consecutive win. The goal marked Stahl’s third of the season and team-leading 13th of her career. It also was her first game-winner in 2020. With the performance, the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, native was named the WVU Student-Athlete of the Week on Oct. 26.
Friday marks WVU’s second matchup against a ranked opponent this season. The Mountaineers have defeated a top-15 foe in 14 of the past 15 years.
Kansas is led by 22nd-year coach Mark Francis, who holds a mark of 240-170-37 with the Jayhawks. KU is coming off a 2-0 loss at then-No. 5 TCU on Oct. 22, in Lawrence.
The Jayhawks, who won the 2019 Big 12 Tournament title and finished 17-5-3 last season, are 10-2-3 in their last 15 games against Big 12 opponents. The squad has allowed only four goals all season and rank No. 10 nationally in goals against average (.667) and No. 15 in save percentage (.833).
The Mountaineers are set to welcome fans to the stadium for the first time this fall, as Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium will operate at 25% capacity as part of the health, safety and wellness measures being implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
An extremely limited amount of tickets remain on sale. Fans are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance by visiting wvugame.com or calling 1-800-WVU GAME to avoid lines at the gate on game day. When purchasing online, tickets are $5 each. Any remaining tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for youth and seniors at the stadium ticket window on game day.
A limited amount of WVU student tickets also will be made available at the Mountaineer Ticket Office, located at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium. The office, as well as the stadium gates, opens at 6:30 p.m., on game day. WVU students are admitted for free with a valid WVU Student I.D.
Andrew Caridi and Adam Zundell have the call of Friday’s contest on Big 12 Now on ESPN+. For more information, or to sign up for the digital platform, visit WVUsports.com/Big12Now. The game also can be heard on 91.7 FM (WWVU) in Morgantown. Live stats are available at WVUsports.com.
The contest also is a Pink Match, and all fans are encouraged to wear pink in support of breast cancer awareness month. The Mountaineers have raised more than $150,000 for Morgantown’s Betty Puskar Breast Care Center in the past 15 years.
