CARY, N.C. — A 74th-minute penalty kick goal by Rice was the difference as the No. 5-seeded WVU women’s soccer team fell to the Owls 1-0 in the second round of the NCAA tournament Saturday at WakeMed Soccer Park.
Despite leading 20-1 in shots, including 11 shots in the second half, the Mountaineers (10-3-1, 7-2-0 Big 12) couldn’t overcome Rice’s second-half penalty kick goal. West Virginia also placed six shots on goal and received seven corner kick opportunities, but couldn’t manage to find the back of the net in the 90-minute contest.
“Rice definitely disrupted us, dropping everybody around the 18 and really defending on the inside,” WVU coach Nikki Izzo-Brown said. “We were a little disrupted and were forced to find different space than we normally would have. At the end of the day, we just didn’t find the back of the net despite having our chances. I have to give a lot of credit to Rice, though.”
WVU started creating chances early, earning a corner kick at the five-minute mark. A trio of Mountaineers got shots off inside the first 15 minutes, but all three sailed off the mark. Dominating possession throughout the duration of the first half, West Virginia’s best chance of the half came off the head of junior midfielder Isabella Sibley at the 35:03 mark, but it was saved by the Rice keeper.
Coming out of the locker room, the game remained scoreless, and the Mountaineers continued to dominate possession and keep the ball in their own attacking half. However, the Owls were able to battle against any chance that West Virginia managed to create. At 58:41, Sibley added another shot on target that resulted in a Mountaineer corner kick. Sophomore defender Julianne Vallerand got her head on the cross from sophomore midfielder Juliana Lynch, but it ricocheted off the near post. Freshman midfielder Lilly McCarthy took the rebound, but her attempt sailed wide.
With just under 20 minutes to play, the Owls finally gained possession in their own final third. They capitalized and drew a foul inside the box to earn a penalty kick opportunity. Rice’s Delaney Schultz managed to get the better of sophomore goalkeeper Kayza Massey, placing the ball in the top left corner for the score. From there, West Virginia struggled to play from behind and was unable to tally the equalizer, ultimately falling, 1-0, to the Owls.
“It really boils down to one shot and one goal,” Izzo-Brown continued. “That’s the tough part about the game of soccer. You can dominate all of the statistics and still not win. This was a very tough year for every athlete, and I was just so proud of the way we sacrificed by staying safe and working hard every day. Unfortunately, this game didn’t go our way, but there’s no better team that I’d want to coach. I’m just so proud of them.”
Vallerand led WVU with five shots on Saturday, while Sibley paced the team with a pair of shots on goal. Ten Mountaineers tallied shot attempts in the defeat. Massey’s only test in the game came on the 74th-minute penalty kick, while Rice keeper Bella Killgore notched six saves in the match.
The Mountaineers finish the 2020-21 season with a 10-3-1 overall record after winning 10 or more matches for the 21st straight season.
Baseball
The West Virginia baseball team dropped a 5-3 game to No. 5 TCU on Saturday at Monongalia County Ballpark.
In the middle game of this weekend’s three-game series, the Horned Frogs never trailed in their second-straight win over the Mountaineers. WVU (15-20, 6-11 Big 12) finished with three runs on 10 hits with one error, while TCU (32-10, 14-3 Big 12) tallied five runs on seven hits with no errors.
TCU’s Austin Krob was credited with the win on the mound, while sophomore left-handed pitcher Jake Carr took the loss, dropping his record to 1-4 on the year. River Ridings earned the save.
Carr dished out a pair of strikeouts in the first, before he got TCU to strand a runner at third base in the second and tallied a 1-2-3 third inning.
In the fourth, though, the Horned Frogs took a 1-0 lead on a bases-loaded walk. TCU added two more in the fifth, spelling the end of Carr’s day. The Mountaineer southpaw allowed three runs on seven hits with four strikeouts and two walks on 91 pitches and four innings of work.
After TCU made it a 4-0 game in the top of the sixth, West Virginia got on the scoreboard for the first time in the bottom half when redshirt sophomore outfielder Alec Burns recorded an RBI ground out.
Then, WVU got within two in the bottom of seventh, thanks to senior catcher Paul McIntosh’s RBI single to make it 4-2. From there, the visitors bumped the lead back to 5-2 with a run in the eighth, moments before Burns hit his first career homer, a solo shot to left, in the bottom of the frame.
The Amherst, N.H., native finished 1 for 3 with two RBI in his first start of the 2021 campaign.
“That’s the first home run we’ve hit since the Sunday game at Baylor (on April 11),” WVU coach Randy Mazey said. “That happens to be my favorite play on offense. We put Burns in there to see what he could do, and he hit a homer, so he’ll be back in there [Sunday].”
Trailing by a pair of runs, the Mountaineers went in order in the ninth.
Along with Burns, junior outfielder Austin Davis enjoyed a four-hit day to lead the Mountaineers at the plate. Sophomore infielder Matt McCormick also added a pair of hits in the setback.
Next up, the Mountaineers and Horned Frogs conclude their three-game set at 1 p.m. Sunday at Monongalia County Ballpark.
