Year in Review: Ten Memorable Moments
June 25, 2015 10:58 AM | General
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| Shane Lyons was officially introduced as West Virginia University's 12th director of athletics on Saturday, January 10, 2015. | |
| All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
Big news happened as soon as the calendar flipped to January when Parkersburg native Shane Lyons answered the call to come home and lead the Mountaineers as the school’s 12th director of athletics. Lyons spent the past three years at Alabama as the Crimson Tide’s No. 2 administrator, working closely with athletic directors Mal Moore and Bill Battle in Tuscaloosa following previous stops at the Atlantic Coast Conference, Texas Tech, the NCAA and Big South Conference.
At his introductory news conference on Saturday, January 10, Lyons talked about continuing WVU’s impressive success on the playing field and in the classroom while underscoring the three core values he wants the athletic department to exhibit moving forward: integrity, innovation and excellence.
“I won’t lose sight of one thing,” said Lyons. “This department will always support the great mission of the University.”
The Mountaineers certainly accomplished that in 2014-15 in what was another academic calendar year worth remembering.
We witnessed the revitalization of men’s basketball, more championship performances from rifle and women’s soccer, freshman Zeke Moisey’s improbable journey to the podium at the 2015 NCAA wrestling championships, the opening of a new ballpark, another first round draft selection in football, women’s basketball’s WNIT run that ended at our state capital, of all places, and, as always, many more unforgettable upset victories that have become one of the trademarks of Mountaineer athletics.
So without further delay, here are the 10 most memorable moments from 2014-15:
10. Women’s Soccer Captures Second Straight Big 12 Tournament Championship
There are three things in life you can count on: death, taxes and Coach Nikki Izzo-Brown winning conference championships. Since joining the Big 12 in 2012, Izzo-Brown’s Mountaineers have won three regular season women’s soccer titles as well as back-to-back tournament championships (Izzo-Brown is the only women’s soccer coach in Big 12 history to win three regular season titles, by the way).
Big 12 tournament title No. 2 happened in Kansas City last November when West Virginia defeated Oklahoma, 1-0, on a Kate Schwindel goal in the match’s 13th minute.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling to be a part of this team and experience this win with everyone,” said the three-time Big 12 coach of the year. “I’m so proud of this team.”
It was West Virginia’s fifth conference championship and fourth in the last five years, dating back to the Mountaineers’ days in the Big East. The Big 12 tournament title and the accompanying automatic NCAA tournament bid gave West Virginia its 15th consecutive NCAA tournament appearance – the eighth-longest active streak in the country. West Virginia finished the season ranked 15th in the final NSCAA Top 25 poll.
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| West Virginia coach Mike Carey watches a free throw go in during the Mountaineers' WNIT championship game played against UCLA in Charleston, West Virginia. | |
| All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
9. Women’s Basketball Invades Charleston
The WNIT was not what veteran coach Mike Carey had his sights set on at the beginning of the 2014-15 season, but his Mountaineers made the most of it by reaching the WNIT championship game held in Charleston, West Virginia, of all places.
Why Charleston?
The move to the state capital was necessitated because the WVU Coliseum was being occupied that weekend by gymnastics, which was serving as the host school for the 2015 NCAA regional championship.
Despite the change of venue, Mountain State women’s hoops fans came out in full force to see West Virginia take on UCLA in the WNIT championship game with nearly 8,700 showing up on short notice.
“I’d like to thank our school and administration for giving us this opportunity (to host the WNIT championship game),” said Carey. “I’d like to thank the fans for a great crowd, great atmosphere and for supporting us here.”
The Mountaineers lost a close game to the Bruins, 62-60, but the state demonstrated once again that there are no gender barriers when it comes to West Virginians’ love of good basketball.
The great turnout in Charleston certainly proved that.
As for next season, Carey is expecting his Mountaineers to return to the NCAA tournament with a retooled roster that includes one of the best returning players in the country in senior guard Bria Holmes.
8. Football Upsets No. 4 Baylor, 41-27
Baylor’s dreams of reaching the college football playoff were derailed in Morgantown, West Virginia, on October 18 when West Virginia stunned the fourth-ranked Bears, 41-27 – this despite the Mountaineers turning the ball over three times in their own territory and losing both starting cornerbacks during the game.
How did West Virginia do it?
Quarterback Clint Trickett passed for 322 yards and three touchdowns, with wide receiver Kevin White catching eight of those Trickett aerials for 132 yards and two TDs, and an attacking Mountaineer defense that kept Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty on his toes all afternoon.
“Holding Baylor to 318 yards is not something I thought we would be able to do,” said an incredulous Dana Holgorsen, who watched his defense give up 73 points and 864 total yards in a blowout loss to the Bears a year prior in Waco.
Baylor punted nine times and was held on fourth down twice in its own territory, while Petty finished the afternoon completing just 16 of his 36 pass attempts for 223 yards and two touchdowns.
Meanwhile, White showed who was the best player on the field by grabbing two touchdown passes, one in spectacular fashion in the corner of the end zone, while being interfered with five times trying to catch passes – six if you count the interference penalty that was declined when he made his unbelievable one-handed TD grab.
It was the third consecutive year West Virginia knocked off a ranked Big 12 foe, WVU upsetting 11th-ranked Oklahoma State in 2013 and beating 11th-ranked Texas on the road in 2012.
7. Women’s Cross Country Finishes Eighth at NCAAs
Sophomore Jillian Forsey was the 14th runner to cross the finish line at the 2014 NCAA Cross Country Championships held in Terre Haute, Indiana, leading West Virginia to an eighth-place overall finish – the program’s fifth top-10 result since 2007.
“We are thrilled with this performance,” said veteran coach Sean Cleary, responsible for all five top-10 finishes.
West Virginia placed ninth at the 2007 NCAA championships, fourth in 2008, sixth in 2009 and eighth in 2014.
The Mountaineers entered this race ranked seventh in the country following an impressive second-place showing at the Mid-Atlantic Regionals in State College, Pennsylvania.
Forsey, a Canadian National Team member, improved 101 spots from her 2013 NCAA Championship finish when she was 115th to earn All-America honors. Senior Kaitlyn Gillespie was the next Mountaineer to cross the finish line in 26th place to achieve All-America recognition as well.
West Virginia’s five other finishers, including freshmen Maggie Drazba and Brynn Harshbarger, are also returning for 2015.
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| Ashley Lawrence and Kadeisha Buchanan hanging out before one of Team Canada's matches in the 2015 FIFA World Cup. | |
| Submitted photo |
6. Buchanan and Lawrence Compete in 2015 FIFA World Cup
It’s something to have one athlete competing on soccer’s biggest stage, but having two, well, now that’s something extremely rare. West Virginia University juniors Kadeisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence are members of Team Canada, which recently qualified for the quarterfinal round of the 2015 FIFA World Cup with a 1-0 victory over Switzerland last Sunday.
“To have these two athletes compete on the highest stage possible in soccer, and to know that they have developed here at West Virginia, just makes me so proud that I am able to work with them,” said WVU coach Nikki Izzo-Brown.
Both are playing prominent roles for Canada. Buchanan played all 90 minutes in Canada’s shutout victory over Switzerland at center back while Lawrence started the game at midfield and logged 76 minutes of playing time.
Five days prior, Lawrence scored a goal in the 10th minute to help Canada to a 1-1 draw against Netherlands in a Group-A match. Lawrence is the first Team Canada player other than team captain Christine Sinclair to score a goal in World Cup competition since 2007, and is the third-youngest Canadian player to ever register a goal in World Cup play.
Buchanan is a two-time Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and two-time All-American at WVU, while Lawrence has twice been named All-Big 12.
Buchanan and Lawrence will be juniors for the Mountaineers in 2015.
5. Kevin White Goes No. 7 in NFL Draft to Chicago Bears
Dana Holgorsen is developing quite a reputation for producing first-round wide receivers. There was Michael Crabtree when Holgorsen was at Texas Tech, and then there was Justin Blackmon when he was at Oklahoma State.
Two years ago, in 2013, Tavon Austin emerged as one of the top wideouts in the 2013 NFL Draft when he was taken No. 8 overall by the St. Louis Rams, and now you can add Kevin White’s name to the list of elite receivers to come out of Dr. Holgorsen’s laboratory.
And White may turn out to be Holgorsen’s most impressive creation.
White, taken No. 7 overall by the Chicago Bears, had a very ordinary junior season at WVU in 2013 when he caught 35 passes for 507 yards and five touchdowns. However, a second season with Holgorsen saw White nearly triple his output by catching 109 passes for 1,447 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2014.
White’s 2014 improvement, coupled with an impressive showing at the 2015 NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, boosted his name to the top of everyone’s draft list.
White became Holgorsen’s third first-rounder since he took over the WVU head coaching reins in 2011, and the 10th in program history dating back to 1936. He is also the highest WVU player taken since Pacman Jones went No. 6 to the Tennessee Titans in 2005.
"Kevin has worked extremely hard and dedicated himself to become one of the best receivers in the country,” said Holgorsen. “I am happy for Kevin and want to congratulate him and his family and wish him luck with the Chicago Bears."
4. Rifle Wins 17th NCAA Title
There are only a handful of dominant programs in NCAA history. Of course, there is UCLA basketball, the sport’s gold standard during legendary coach John Wooden’s amazing tenure in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and there is also Anson Dorrance’s incredible run coaching the 21-time NCAA champion North Carolina Tar Heels – women’s soccer’s version of the New York Yankees over the last three decades.
And West Virginia rifle, with 17 NCAA titles since 1983, can easily be mentioned in the same breath as those programs with this caveat - the Mountaineers have achieved their great success with a number of different coaches.
Olympic gold medalist Ed Etzel began West Virginia’s winning tradition at the 1983 NCAA Championship in Cincinnati, Ohio, before handing the program off to Marsha Beasley in 1990. Beasley won eight national titles during a 16-year coaching tenure that ended in 2005.
Then, Jon Hammond was brought in to revive the program in 2006 and has since led the Mountaineers to NCAA titles in 2009, 2013, 2014, and, most recently, in 2015.
In fact, the West Virginia rifle brand is so strong that graduate assistant coach Greg Perrine was able to lead WVU to a national championship in 1988 when regular coach Ed Etzel was on sabbatical.
Now that’s the definition of true success!
3. Zeke Moisey’s NCAA Championship Run
Zeke Moisey proved that a seeding doesn’t always determine the outcome of a tournament. The West Virginia freshman upset his way to the 125-pound finals at the 2015 NCAA Championships in St. Louis, becoming the first unseeded wrestler to reach the NCAA finals since Columbia coach Carl Fronhofer did it at Pitt in 2003.
The last time an unseeded freshman was able to accomplish this? The record books don’t go back that far.
Moisey’s run to the podium included victories over the tournament’s No. 15, No. 2, No. 7 and No. 6 seeds to reach the finals and his 52-second pin of Iowa’s Thomas Gilman in the semifinals turned the Scottrade Center into a scene out of the movie Vision Quest.
The glass slipper came off in the finals, however, when Moisey lost, 9-4, to fourth-seeded Nathan Tomasello of Ohio State.
“I’m extremely proud of Zeke and his performance this weekend,” said WVU coach Sammie Henson. “He represented West Virginia University and the Mountaineer wrestling program with guts and honor.”
Moisey became West Virginia’s first All-American wrestler since 2007 and the program’s first NCAA finalist since 2005. In the process, WVU recorded a top 20 finish at nationals for the first time in a decade when West Virginia placed 18th with 34 points in 2005.
The return of Zeke Moisey and a nationally ranked recruiting class in 2016 should have the Mountaineers sending even more wrestlers to the podium in the near future.
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| A standing room only crowd of 3,110 showed up to christen the brand new Monongalia County Ballpark on Friday, April 10, 2015. | |
| All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
2. Monongalia County Ballpark Opens
Build it and they will come. An overflow crowd of 3,110 did its part to dedicate the brand new, $25 million Monongalia County Ballpark on Friday, April 10, when West Virginia defeated Butler, 6-5, in 13 innings.
Construction began on the new ballpark in the summer of 2014 after the West Virginia Legislature approved tax increment financing in the winter of 2013.
The new facility offers a sweeping view of Morgantown and the surrounding mountains, giving West Virginia University one of the most impressive venues in college baseball.
Ground was officially broken on October 13, 2013 for the new facility, which is shared by the Pittsburgh Pirates Class-A affiliate in the New York-Penn League, the West Virginia Black Bears. This is Morgantown’s first foray into professional baseball, which has had an extensive history in the Mountain State through the years.
Wheeling was the epicenter of pro baseball in West Virginia at the turn of the century and Martinsburg took over that title in the late teens.
Charleston became the dominant city in the state for pro baseball after World War II and has continued to field a minor league franchise in the present. There are currently only four West Virginia cities hosting affiliated professional baseball today: Charleston, Princeton, Bluefield and now Morgantown.
As for the WVU baseball program, the new facility is already making a difference. For the first time in program history West Virginia finished ranked among NCAA attendance leaders with an average of 1,744 spectators per game. The new ballpark’s next impact will likely come in recruiting, Coach Randy Mazey believes.
1. Mountaineer Basketball is Back!
Last summer, a visibly agitated Bob Huggins interrupted one of his few days off to come into the basketball practice facility to inform everyone that the sky was not falling.
This was after two key players from teams that won 30 out of 65 games decided to transfer to other schools. The wheels were not off and the wings weren’t clipped, Huggins reassured Mountaineer Nation.
Turns out he was right.
Huggins rolled up his sleeves, retooled his roster and sought out old friend Kevin Mackey to pick his brain on the full-court, pressure defensive system that Mackey once used back in the late 1980s when he was coaching at Cleveland State.
The result in 2015 was 25 victories (an eight-win improvement over 2014), a return to the top 25 in both major polls, five big wins against top 25 teams, including a pair of memorable victories over eighth-ranked Kansas at the Coliseum in buzzer-beating fashion and a 10-point triumph over 12th-ranked Maryland in an NCAA tournament third-round game to get the Mountaineers back to the Sweet 16 for the third time under Huggins’ watch.
West Virginia did it in impressive fashion by leading the country in steals, steals per game and offensive rebounding. It was the first time in school history that a Mountaineer team led the country in ANY statistical category, let alone three.
For his efforts, Huggins was named the 2015 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year, making it only the third time in program history that has happened to a WVU men’s basketball coach. Furthermore, there were only two seniors on last year’s team, meaning 74 percent of the Mountaineers’ offense is returning for the 2016 season.
And that should afford Huggins the opportunity of spending at least one full day at the lake this summer with his fishing pole in the water before hitting the recruiting trail in July.
NCAA Selection Show
Wednesday, May 13
WVU Baseball Defensive Highlights
Tuesday, May 12
Kansas Recap
Tuesday, May 12
Kansas State Recap
Tuesday, May 12
