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No. 6 Mountaineers Top Big 12 Poll
August 10, 2016 04:17 PM | Women's Soccer
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 6-ranked West Virginia University women’s soccer team is the unanimous No. 1 pick in the 2016 Big 12 Conference Soccer Preseason Poll, released today by the league office.
Today’s poll marks the fourth straight season the Big 12’s eight head coaches have picked the Mountaineers to finish first in the conference; WVU was not picked No. 1 in 2012, its first season in the Big 12.
Coaches were not permitted to vote for their own teams.
The four-time defending Big 12 Conference regular-season champion, the Mountaineers are the only current league team to be tabbed the preseason favorite in four consecutive polls. WVU is the first program since Texas A&M (2004-07) to earn a conference-best four straight preseason No. 1 rankings.
“We always carry a large target on our backs into the Big 12 portion of our season,” WVU coach Nikki Izzo-Brown, the four-time reigning Big 12 Conference coach of the Year, said. “While it’s an honor to earn this distinction from our peers, we are fully aware of how hard we must work to make sure we are No. 1 at the end of the year, too.”
WVU is 27-1-3 all-time in Big 12 play and owns a 15-0-1 showing in Big 12 games at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium. The Mountaineers are on a 30-match unbeaten streak in conference games played in Morgantown and have not dropped a league contest since losing 3-2 in overtime to No. 8 Notre Dame on Oct. 2, 2009.
Among WVU’s 18 returning letterwinners are three-time defending Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year Kadeisha Buchanan and reigning Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Bianca St. Georges. Additionally, Izzo-Brown returns six All-Big 12 honorees from the 2015 season, including All-Americans Buchanan and senior midfielder Ashley Lawrence.
No. 19-ranked Texas Tech, the 2015 Big 12 postseason champion, sits at No. 2, while Oklahoma ranks No. 3, its highest preseason position in program history.
Baylor ranks No. 4, with Oklahoma State, Texas and Kansas following at fifth, sixth and seventh. TCU and Iowa State round out the poll.
The All-Big 12 preseason team will be announced tomorrow.
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