MORGANTOWN — It would be easy for Nikki Izzo-Brown to say her players simply began to play harder or even throw a nod toward the soccer gods for the ball beginning to bounce the right way, but there is more to West Virginia’s story than that.
The WVU women’s soccer team advanced to the Round of 32 of the NCAA tournament Sunday with a 2-0 victory against Virginia Tech inside Dick Dlesk Stadium.
The Mountaineers will now travel to No. 21 Penn State for a second-round matchup at 4:30 p.m. Friday. Penn State beat WVU 2-0 during the regular season.
Even the Mountaineers’ victory against the Hokies (10-7-2) came with an interesting sort of twist with WVU’s two goals coming from players who hadn’t scored all season.
“That’s great coaching,” joked Izzo-Brown, who picked up her 24th victory in the NCAA tournament.
The story behind the Mountaineers (11-4-7) is they were not in position to even think about playing in the second round of the NCAA tourney just a few weeks back.
“We didn’t know what was going to happen,” is the way WVU sophomore forward Aria Bilal explained it. “But we couldn’t go backwards, we could only go forward. We were going to do it for each other.”
The Mountaineers have done exactly that, beginning with a 3-2 come-from-behind victory against Oklahoma on Oct. 23, in which they trailed 2-0 in the first half, WVU has been on a tear of dominance ever since.
WVU is 7-0-1 over its last eight games, which includes wins against nationally-ranked Texas and TCU to win the Big 12 tournament.
“It’s our journey of an old coach being around young players and we’ve just got to keep doing what we’ve been doing and keep believing,” Izzo-Brown said. “I knew the potential of this team, but sometimes the soccer gods have to be on your side a little bit. For me, it’s just continuing to grind and have them believe in themselves.”
When you believe, weird things can happen.
Like Jordan Brewster handing the Mountaineers the Big 12 title last week on a goal that came from 80-yards away with a ball that just soared through the air and then took one big fortuitous hop over the TCU keeper.
Or by having both Bilal and teammate Isabel Loza score their first goals of the season on Sunday, in what just happened to be in the NCAA tournament.
“This is the strength of our team, is that at any given moment, someone is going to step up,” Izzo-Brown said. “You look at Aria or you look at (Loza), they didn’t stop. They didn’t say, ‘I can’t do it, I’m going to do it.’ ”
Bilal’s game-winner came early in the second half, in the 49th minute, on a ball that bounced around in front of the Hokies’ goal before Bilal snuck it into the net on the right side.
“I don’t think I was thinking in the moment,” Bilal said. “I just saw the ball and just sort of ran through it. I didn’t see anything before, it was just anticipation.”
It was a key moment of the game, because the Hokies appeared to have a few chances to knock the ball to safety before Bilal got to it.
“My first recollection is we had multiple opportunities to clear it,” Virginia Tech head coach Charles Adair said. “We never really got set defensively to clear it like we should have. They got that second or third effort and kept it alive for that goal. It was a big moment.”
Loza sealed the win with her first goal of the season in the 81st minute that came off a rebound from Jordan Brewster’s free kick that saw Taylor White gain possession and she somehow got the ball to Loza for the score.
WVU keeper Kayza Massey recorded two saves in earning her 10th shutout of the season.
“It feels great,” Izzo-Brown said. “It’s been an incredible postseason thus far. This team has stepped up in big moments and every individual has done their job.”
TWEET @bigjax3211
