Reversing Roles
October 30, 2010 10:54 AM | General
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia will be confronted with a little role reversal when the 18th-rated Mountaineer women’s soccer team takes on Rutgers at Dick Dlesk Stadium this Sunday afternoon in a Big East tournament quarterfinal match.
Last year, West Virginia went on the road to defeat the Scarlet Knights, 1-0, in the Big East tournament quarterfinals to advance to the semifinals. This year’s tournament final four is being played at Rutgers, a place the Scarlet Knights want to continue their season.
“What Rutgers is going to bring this weekend is an emotional team,” Izzo-Brown said. “They are fighting for their (NCAA tournament) lives but also, the Big East championship this year is at Rutgers. They have a little bit more there from an emotional standpoint because nobody wants to host it and not be in it.”
Rutgers (10-8-1) is coming off a decisive 3-0 win over Louisville in its regular season finale last Sunday (West Virginia defeated the Cardinals 2-1 on Oct. 3). The Scarlet Knights have advanced to the NCAA tournament three of the last four years and return eight starters from last year’s team that lost to Stanford in the Sweet 16. Rutgers has been playing well of late and enters Sunday match with eight shutouts and a goals-against-average of less than one per game.
“They’re a very dynamic team,” Izzo-Brown said. “They have an All-American in Gina DeMaio. They are a great scoring team but also they keep teams from not scoring many goals. Their goals-against-average is very low so they put a lot of numbers on the scoreboard but they also keep a lot off.”
Speaking of putting numbers on the board, West Virginia (13-4-1) has scored 12 goals in its last four matches and is taking a nine-game winning streak into postseason play. The Mountaineers have scored two or more goals in seven of those nine matches with the other two victories being 1-0 overtime wins on the road. Before that, WVU started the season 4-4-1 and was spinning its wheels.
“We got nine games in and now we really know what our team is about,” explained Izzo-Brown. “So we pulled the team back, we had a team meeting and we said, ‘OK, preseason this is what we wanted to do, different situations have happened and we are a different team – good or bad – so now we’ve got to make those adjustments.’ I’ve got to give the team a lot of credit. They embraced that; they applied that and they have executed it and worked hard for it.”
West Virginia is still a very young team (there are only three seniors in this year’s starting lineup) but Izzo-Brown is beginning to see the benefits of having a lineup play together for a full season, particularly on the offensive end of the field where the Mountaineers struggled at times last season.
“It’s a huge team sport and I think (experience) has been the difference with this team,” she said. “At any given moment somebody really steps up and is fantastic and does a little bit more than their job. (Goalkeeper) Kerri Butler did that for us on Friday (against Connecticut).
“Frances Silva finishes a great goal and so does Drea (Barklage) on Sunday (against Providence). Megan Mischler has had numerous game winners, Blake Miller … you name it,” she continued. “Other people have been stepping up … Bri Rodriguez, Ashtin Larkin … so everybody is kind of stepping up and being a little bit special at different times.”
Additionally, what has been so pleasing to Izzo-Brown is that her young team is finding different ways to win games, be it 1-0 overtime wins at Syracuse and St. John’s or 4-3 come-from-behind shootouts against Villanova.
“We have so many different experiences happen to this team and the one thing that we hold on to is … are we getting better every game and are we learning from every experience? I think that’s something that we can go back and I bet you the team will tell you, each game if there is something that we need to make an adjustment with it’s very clear – OK, what can we learn from this game?
“Villanova was a great opportunity for us to really learn,” she said. “We’re on the road for four games and we’re battling and all of a sudden we come home and we think, oh, we’re home so we’re going to win. It doesn’t happen like that in the Big East Conference.”
Nor will it happen this Sunday when the Mountaineers take on a motivated Rutgers team looking to avenge last year’s loss to West Virginia.
“The emotion that Rutgers is going to bring is something that we have to match,” Izzo-Brown said. “To get that competitive edge, the crowd can help us with that. We want to make this University proud. We want to win a Big East championship and a big crowd behind us on Sunday can only help and add to that final result. We want to make everyone proud that women’s soccer is winning championships.”
Izzo-Brown said her team’s legs should be fresh when they hit the field on Sunday.
“Just with us not having two games this week is very critical for us,” she said. “Just getting rejuvenated a little bit and getting geared up for postseason, so any time off has been huge.”
Game time is 1 p.m. Those unable to attend Sunday’s match in person can watch the live video stream on MSNsportsNET.com.
Last year, West Virginia went on the road to defeat the Scarlet Knights, 1-0, in the Big East tournament quarterfinals to advance to the semifinals. This year’s tournament final four is being played at Rutgers, a place the Scarlet Knights want to continue their season.
“What Rutgers is going to bring this weekend is an emotional team,” Izzo-Brown said. “They are fighting for their (NCAA tournament) lives but also, the Big East championship this year is at Rutgers. They have a little bit more there from an emotional standpoint because nobody wants to host it and not be in it.”
Rutgers (10-8-1) is coming off a decisive 3-0 win over Louisville in its regular season finale last Sunday (West Virginia defeated the Cardinals 2-1 on Oct. 3). The Scarlet Knights have advanced to the NCAA tournament three of the last four years and return eight starters from last year’s team that lost to Stanford in the Sweet 16. Rutgers has been playing well of late and enters Sunday match with eight shutouts and a goals-against-average of less than one per game.
“They’re a very dynamic team,” Izzo-Brown said. “They have an All-American in Gina DeMaio. They are a great scoring team but also they keep teams from not scoring many goals. Their goals-against-average is very low so they put a lot of numbers on the scoreboard but they also keep a lot off.”
Speaking of putting numbers on the board, West Virginia (13-4-1) has scored 12 goals in its last four matches and is taking a nine-game winning streak into postseason play. The Mountaineers have scored two or more goals in seven of those nine matches with the other two victories being 1-0 overtime wins on the road. Before that, WVU started the season 4-4-1 and was spinning its wheels.
“We got nine games in and now we really know what our team is about,” explained Izzo-Brown. “So we pulled the team back, we had a team meeting and we said, ‘OK, preseason this is what we wanted to do, different situations have happened and we are a different team – good or bad – so now we’ve got to make those adjustments.’ I’ve got to give the team a lot of credit. They embraced that; they applied that and they have executed it and worked hard for it.”
West Virginia is still a very young team (there are only three seniors in this year’s starting lineup) but Izzo-Brown is beginning to see the benefits of having a lineup play together for a full season, particularly on the offensive end of the field where the Mountaineers struggled at times last season.
“It’s a huge team sport and I think (experience) has been the difference with this team,” she said. “At any given moment somebody really steps up and is fantastic and does a little bit more than their job. (Goalkeeper) Kerri Butler did that for us on Friday (against Connecticut).
“Frances Silva finishes a great goal and so does Drea (Barklage) on Sunday (against Providence). Megan Mischler has had numerous game winners, Blake Miller … you name it,” she continued. “Other people have been stepping up … Bri Rodriguez, Ashtin Larkin … so everybody is kind of stepping up and being a little bit special at different times.”
Additionally, what has been so pleasing to Izzo-Brown is that her young team is finding different ways to win games, be it 1-0 overtime wins at Syracuse and St. John’s or 4-3 come-from-behind shootouts against Villanova.
“We have so many different experiences happen to this team and the one thing that we hold on to is … are we getting better every game and are we learning from every experience? I think that’s something that we can go back and I bet you the team will tell you, each game if there is something that we need to make an adjustment with it’s very clear – OK, what can we learn from this game?
“Villanova was a great opportunity for us to really learn,” she said. “We’re on the road for four games and we’re battling and all of a sudden we come home and we think, oh, we’re home so we’re going to win. It doesn’t happen like that in the Big East Conference.”
Nor will it happen this Sunday when the Mountaineers take on a motivated Rutgers team looking to avenge last year’s loss to West Virginia.
“The emotion that Rutgers is going to bring is something that we have to match,” Izzo-Brown said. “To get that competitive edge, the crowd can help us with that. We want to make this University proud. We want to win a Big East championship and a big crowd behind us on Sunday can only help and add to that final result. We want to make everyone proud that women’s soccer is winning championships.”
Izzo-Brown said her team’s legs should be fresh when they hit the field on Sunday.
“Just with us not having two games this week is very critical for us,” she said. “Just getting rejuvenated a little bit and getting geared up for postseason, so any time off has been huge.”
Game time is 1 p.m. Those unable to attend Sunday’s match in person can watch the live video stream on MSNsportsNET.com.
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