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No. 4 Mountaineers Travel to Richmond
September 22, 2016 02:21 PM | Women's Soccer
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 4-ranked West Virginia University women’s soccer team concludes its nonconference slate at Richmond on Friday, Sept. 23, with first kick from Robins Stadium set for 7:30 p.m.
Friday’s match will be televised locally in the Richmond area on WTVR-TV 6.
“We’ve seen some things we need to improve on, and my biggest thing with this group is to make sure the things we are seeing on tape don’t keep showing up,” coach Nikki Izzo-Brown said of the squad’s objectives heading into Friday’s match. “I just want to make sure that we have things cleaned up, and we’re almost there.”
Ranked No. 4 in the first NCAA RPI of the season, this weekend is the first of the 2016 season the Mountaineers (7-1-1) will not meet a ranked opponent. WVU is 3-1-1 against ranked teams this year and 2-1-1 against top-10 squads.
WVU shows a 2-1-1 all-time record against Richmond (5-2-1). In their last meeting, the Mountaineers tallied a 2-0 victory against the Spiders in Morgantown on Sept. 20, 2013. Senior Ashley Lawrence scored her second career goal against Richmond, an insurance goal in the 77th minute.
Boasting a 1.89 goals/game average, the Mountaineers are paced by junior forward Michaela Abam’s 11 points (5 G, 1 A). The Houston native’s point total ranks No. 8 in the Big 12 Conference, while her five goals rank No. 4. With 25 career goals to her name, she needs three more to break onto the WVU all-time career goals list.
True to form, the WVU defense has looked stout this season, allowing just five goals in nine games and posting four shutouts for a 0.535 goals-against average (GAA), the 28th-best mark in the NCAA.
Most recently, the Mountaineers finished their home nonconference slate with a 1-1 mark at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium, defeating Princeton, 3-0, on Sept. 16 but falling 1-0 in double-overtime to No. 9 Georgetown on Sept. 18.
“When we came home from the Duke game, we had a lot of takeaways, and we had a lot of takeaways from the Georgetown loss, too,” Izzo-Brown added. “We refocused and have a clear understanding of what we need to do at Richmond.”
Richmond ranks No. 24 nationally in scoring offense with a 2.43 goals/game average. The Spiders are paced by junior forward Lexi Prillaman’s 21 points (9 G, 3 A). She also has scored a team-best three game-winners. Senior forward Meghan Carrigan follows with 14 points (6 G, 2 A).
As a team, Richmond shows a 1.82 GAA. Three different Spiders have earned time in net. Junior Katie Brennan boasts a team-best 3-1 record and shows 14 saves.
Most recently, Richmond tallied a 4-0 win at American on Sept. 20. Carrigan and Prillaman each scored twice, with Prillaman tallying the game-winner in the 33rd minute. Freshman Carlie Blessing finished with five saves.
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