On Sunday afternoon the West Virginia Mountaineers played their first round match of the NCAA Tournament, defeating the Virginia Tech Hokies 2-0.
Both of the Mountaineers goals were scored by players who had yet to record a goal this season, with Aria Bilal and Isabel Loza picking up their first goals of the season to give the Mountaineers the win.
“This is the diversity or the strength of our team, is that at any given moment somebody is gonna step up, or continue to do their job… you look at Aria, you look at Izzy and they didn’t stop and say I can’t do it, I’m gonna do it,” Nikki Izoo-Brown said after the game.
West Virginia played the opponent to a shut-out for the third straight match, with their last goal allowed coming against Oklahoma State on October 30th. Kayza Massey made 2 saves en route to the shutout.
West Virginia got an early scoring opportunity when a penalty was awarded to the Mountaineers on a collision in the box in the 5th minute, but Brewster’s penalty kick rang off the crossbar, and Lauren Segalla’s follow up shot went off the left post.
West Virginia would get another prime scoring opportunity in the 24th minute, when a rebound came to Dilary Heredia-Beltran
The two teams would head into the half-time break scoreless, and both having hit the woodwork on shots. West Virginia held the advantage in total shots 6-4, and a 3-1 advantage in shots on goal.
The Mountaineers would be the ones to break through first, just three minutes into the second, when a DIlary Heredia-Beltran bounced around the box, and eventually found the feet of Aria Bilal who beat Hokies keeper Lauren Hargrove to take a 1-0 lead.
Asked if she thought she had time to get to the ball before the defender Bilal said, “I don’t think I was thinking in the moment, I just saw the ball and was gonna run through it. We’ve been working in practice on one time finishing, I know I didn’t have time to take two.”
The Hokies would get a chance to tie in the 62nd minute, after a cross found the feet of Taylor Bryan in space, but Mountaineers keeper Kayza Massey was able to make the save after a deflection to keep West Virginia on top.
West Virginia would double their lead in the 80th minute when Isabel Loza put a ball that squirted past the Virginia Tech defense into the back of the net.
The Mountaineers out-shot the Hokies 11-9, with an 8-2 shot on goal advantage. West Virginia also took 6 corners to Virginia Tech’s 3.
Next up for the Mountaineers will be No. 2 Penn State, who defeated Quinnipiac 4-1 on Sunday.
“We have a lot of respect for Penn State and what they do and obviously seeing them earlier and them beating us is a great opportunity for us to play another top level team and see where we’re at how we match up,” Izzo-Brown said on the Nittany Lions.
Photo by Wesley Shoemaker
