Women's Soccer: WVU Ready For Semifinal Match
November 08, 2007 04:22 PM | General
By Tim Goodenow for MSNsportsNET.com
November 8, 2007
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – For the second time this season the 12th-ranked West Virginia women’s soccer team will square off against the Louisville Cardinals. However, the stakes are much higher this time around with the teams meeting in Friday’s BIG EAST semifinals, scheduled for 7:30 p.m., at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.
West Virginia makes its sixth conference semifinals appearance on Friday while Louisville makes its first semifinals since joining the league in 2005.
The Mountaineers pulled out a 1-0 victory on Oct. 5 in Morgantown in their first meeting. Senior Natalie Cocchi’s goal just 1:40 into the second half was the difference. The Louisville defeat was just its second loss in the Cardinals’ last 10 games.
“Beating a team twice is always a difficult task,” says WVU Head Coach Nikki Izzo-Brown. “From a confidence standpoint, seeing what Louisville has done is a good thing. They’ve changed their lineup a bit but we have an idea of what kind of game they’ll play.”
WVU and Louisville have met only one other time, a 0-0 draw in the 2006 BIG EAST quarterfinals. West Virginia advanced on penalty kicks, 5-4, and both teams made the NCAA tournament.
“We have a lot of respect for (coach) Karen (Ferguson) and her teams,” says Izzo-Brown. “We’ve only played a few times but it’s always close.”
Louisville, the No. 2 seed in the National Division, defeated Marquette 1-0 on Nov. 4, to begin postseason play. The Cardinals are led by all-BIG EAST goalkeeper Joanna Haig. Haig has allowed only nine goals in 1,910 minutes of play this season.
“It doesn’t get any easier this week,” says Izzo-Brown of having to face an all-BIG EAST goalkeeper for the second straight game. “Joanna has a lot of strengths to her game. She works well with her back line and we’ll need to finish on any chances we get.”
West Virginia is 7-7-2 in BIG EAST tournament games, dating back to its first appearance in 1998. Of those 16 games, five have been played in Morgantown where WVU is 3-1-1.
National Division top seed Notre Dame and National Division third seed Georgetown will meet in the first semifinal match on Friday at 5:30 p.m., at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium. The winners of each semifinal match will advance to the championship match on Sunday, Nov. 11. All three games will televised live on CSTV.
Ticket prices are $5 for adults (19 & older) and $2 for youth (18 & younger). All BIG EAST students can attend for free with a valid student ID.
