MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The West Virginia women’s soccer team earned a bid in the 2019 NCAA Tournament and will face Georgetown in the first round Saturday at Shaw Field in Washington D.C.
With the selection, the Mountaineers have advanced to the NCAA tournament in 20 consecutive seasons, which is tied for the fifth-longest active streak nationally. West Virginia has won four straight opening-round matches in the tournament, dating back to 2015.
“The NCAA selection committee always has a tough job to do,” WVU coach Nikki Izzo-Brown said. “I’m certainly glad that the committee saw the value in our RPI to give us an at-large bid. This team has stepped up this season. It’s been incredible to watch the journey and how they came together and just how badly they wanted to be the team to get to 20.”
Saturday’s match marks the second time the two teams have met this season after Georgetown earned a 3-0 win over West Virginia back in September.
Georgetown (13-4-3) enters the match after falling to Xavier in the Big East Championship game. Fifth-year senior Amanda Carolan leads the Hoyas with 29 points on a team-high 11 goals and seven assists.
Sophomore forward Alina Stahl paces WVU with 12 points on a team-best five goals and two assists. Freshman forward Julianne Vallerand ranks No. 2 with 11 points (five goals, one assist), while sophomore forward Lizzie Mayfield shows a team-high four assists.
The WVU backline has posted seven shutouts this season, with six credited to senior goalkeeper Rylee Foster. Foster is third amongst active student-athletes in Division I and second on the school’s career shutouts list with 37.
Thirty-one conferences were granted automatic bids for the NCAA tournament, while the remaining 33 teams were selected at-large. The top 16 teams are seeded and conference teams cannot play each other in the first or second rounds. When pairing teams, the committee follows geographic proximity parameters. The top 16 teams will host and all other sites were selected for the first round to create the least number of flights.
First-round games will be played Friday, Saturday and Sunday at campus sites. Second-round games will be played Nov. 22 at campus sites and third-round games will be played Nov. 24 at the same campus sites. Quarterfinal games will be played Nov. 29 or 30, also on campus sites.
The 40th annual NCAA Women’s College Cup will be played Dec. 6 and 8 at Avaya Stadium in San Jose, Calif. The first national semifinal will be played at 7 p.m. on Dec. 6, and the second semifinal will begin at 9:30 p.m. The national championship match will take place at 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 8.
