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Big 12 Champions Turn Attention to Texas
October 22, 2016 01:50 PM | Women's Soccer
AUSTIN – Less than 48 hours after claiming its fifth straight Big 12 Conference regular-season title, the No. 1-ranked West Virginia University women’s soccer team closes its 2016 road schedule at Texas on Sunday, Oct. 23, with first kick from Mike A. Myers Stadium set for 6 p.m. ET.
Sunday’s match will be broadcast nationally by FSN and regionally on ROOT SPORTS Pittsburgh.
The Mountaineers (14-1-1, 6-0) clinched the 2016 Big 12 crown with a 3-0 victory at TCU on Oct. 21. WVU has won each league title since joining the conference in 2012 and shows seven total Big 12 titles, including two Big 12 Soccer Championship titles. The Mountaineers have won 15 conference championships since 2002.
WVU carries a seven-match win streak into Sunday evening and is 19-0-2 in Big 12 regular-season games since 2014, matching the longest unbeaten streak in conference history. The team is 8-0-2 on the road in that time span.
Sunday is the seventh all-time meeting between the Mountaineers and the Longhorns (8-7-1, 1-4-1), and WVU owns a 4-1-1 series edge. Most recently, the Mountaineers earned a 2-0 win on Sept. 25, 2015, at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium. Sophomore forward Hannah Abraham tallied the game-winner in the 36th minute, and senior midfielder Ashley Lawrence added an insurance goal in the 52nd minute.
WVU also earned a 2-0 win in its last visit to Austin on Sept. 28, 2014. Lawrence also added an insurance goal in that victory. She shows five points (2 G, 1 A) in three regular-season meetings against the Longhorns.
“Texas is always a well-organized team and is very dangerous up top,” WVU coach Nikki Izzo-Brown said. “I have a lot of respect for their program. We’re going to have to refocus quickly and prepare for a hungry Texas team.”
The Mountaineer defense enters Sunday evening ranked No. 4 nationally with a 0.37 goals-against average (GAA). The unit has allowed just six goals all season, the second-fewest in the nation, and denied six straight conference opponents a score. WVU shows 10 clean sheets on the year and needs five more to match the program single-season record of 15, set by the 2015 squad.
Freshman Rylee Foster made one save in the Mountaineers’ win over the Horned Frogs Friday night. She ranks No. 3 nationally, No. 1 in the Big 12, with a 0.31 GAA and shows six career shutouts.
Junior forward Michaela Abam paces the Mountaineers’ attack with 19 points (8 G, 3 A), the second-best Big 12 point total. The Houston native tallied the game-winner against TCU in the 52nd minute, pushing her career goal total to 28. She now sits in a tie with assistant coach Marisa Kanela for 10th place on the program’s all-time career goals list.
The Longhorns earned their first conference win of the season with a 2-0 victory against Texas Tech on Oct. 21, in Austin. Senior forward Jasmine Hart tallied both goals, and senior Paige Brown made six saves for her fourth career clean sheet.
Prior to the win, UT was 1-4-1 in its last six matches and had been outscored, 8-5, in that span.
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