Notre Dame Preview
October 02, 2003 10:50 AM | General
October 2, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University women’s soccer coach Nikki Izzo-Brown doesn’t need to turn on the VCR to know No. 2-ranked Notre Dame is as good as its lofty ranking. But she has watched tape of them anyway.
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| West Virginia coach Nikki Izzo-Brown is very impressed with the No. 2-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
So Coach, what do you think?
“Well ...,” she laughed nervously. “Their speed of play, their depth on the bench, their frontrunners, their organization – those are some of the things that really impress me about them. They’ve got 17 terrific players on their team.”
West Virginia, 9-1-0 this season, was able to take advantage of some key Irish injuries last year to post a 3-0 victory over Notre Dame in Morgantown. It was the program’s first-ever victory against the Irish.
“We didn’t see them when they were completely depleted but they had some injuries,” Izzo-Brown said.
Izzo-Brown is expecting an Irish team at full strength when the Mountaineers travel to Notre Dame for a key Friday night Big East Mid-Atlantic Division showdown.
Notre Dame is coming off a 3-0 victory over Indiana State Tuesday night to boost its overall record to 9-0-1. Prior to that, Notre Dame posted an 8-1 win over North Texas and has scored five or more goals in a game four times so far this year. Notre Dame’s only blemish was a 0-0 tie against No. 23 Stanford on Sept. 19.
“They’re the second best team in the country and they’re just tearing it up right now,” said Izzo-Brown.
Mary Boland leads one of the nation’s most balanced attacks with nine goals. Amy Warner and Amanda Guertin have six goals each; nine Irish players have scored at least two goals this season.
Notre Dame is averaging nearly four goals per game and has given up an average of just 0.49 goals per contest. Irish keeper Erika Bohn has spent most of the time in front of the net and shows a 0.44 goals against average.
Notre Dame has impressive wins over No. 10 Wake Forest (3-1) and No. 24 Oklahoma (5-1); No. 8 West Virginia will be Notre Dame’s fourth nationally ranked foe this season.
West Virginia, meanwhile, is coming off an impressive 2-0 win at No. 19 Tennessee last weekend. The Mountaineers got early goals from Laura Kane and Chrissie Abbott on the way to its sixth shutout victory of the season.
Izzo-Brown sees West Virginia’s performance in Knoxville as a great springboard for Friday.
“Tennessee was a great team and obviously for us to come out and take it to them with a lot of pressure and having the ability to finish our chances gives us some momentum going into Notre Dame,” said Izzo-Brown.
WVU freshman keeper Laura Bannerman has played a part in all six shutouts and has five to her credit. Bannerman comes into Friday’s match with a 0.51 goals against average.
Senior Chrissie Abbott leads WVU with nine goals and 21 points. Senior Lisa Stoia has four goals and six assists for 14 points.
West Virginia is 2-1 this season against nationally ranked teams and has an impressive two-year record of 6-3 against rated opponents.
“When we’re playing that high-level caliber team we’re ready to play,” said Izzo-Brown. “Our players know where Notre Dame is, they know where we are and they want to be where Notre Dame is.”
WVU has also been in the national polls for 15 straight weeks dating back to Sept. 23 of last year. West Virginia’s last loss to an unranked team came at Auburn to start the 2002 season.
Friday’s match will start at 7 pm and a link for Notre Dame LiveStats will be provided at MSNsportsNET.com from the women’s soccer page.
West Virginia remains on the road for a Sunday match at Georgetown before returning to Morgantown to face Rutgers at the Mountaineer Soccer Complex on Friday, Oct. 10.
