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No. 3 Mountaineers Open Big 12 Play
September 29, 2016 03:25 PM | Women's Soccer
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 3-ranked and four-time reigning Big 12 Conference champion West Virginia University women’s soccer team opens league play against Baylor on Friday, Sept. 30, at 7 p.m., at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.
To celebrate the conference opener, 50 Big 12 Conference t-shirts will be given out throughout the match. Fans also will have the opportunity to take a picture with the 2015 Big 12 Conference trophy, which will be on display in the stadium concourse prior to kickoff.
LIVE STREAM | GAME STATS | GAME NOTES
Tickets for Friday’s match are $5 for adults, $3 for senior citizens and youths under 13 and $2 for groups of 10 or more. WVU students are admitted free with a valid WVU Student I.D. Tickets are available HERE.
The Mountaineers (8-1-1), the only Big 12 team to win four consecutive outright regular-season crowns, carry a 30-match unbeaten streak in league matches at DDSS into Friday night. The streak is the third-longest active streak in the nation.
“There is so much parity in the Big 12 right now,” Mountaineer coach Nikki Izzo-Brown said. “The conference has gotten so much better since last season. There are a lot of teams having a great year. It’s anyone’s ball game, and you’re going to see us in a lot of tough matches.”
Friday is the fifth all-time meeting between the Mountaineers and the Bears (8-3-1, 1-0-1) and the first since 2014. The teams’ 2015 match was canceled due to inclement weather in Waco. WVU owns a 3-0-1 all-time series advantage.
“Baylor is a very athletic team,” Izzo-Brown noted. “They’re very fast and very aggressive. They are going to high-pressure us everywhere. They have a system of play, and they believe in it.”
In their last meeting, the Mountaineers tallied a 2-0 victory over the Bears on Oct. 31, 2014, in Morgantown. Junior forward Michaela Abam capped a great rookie Big 12 campaign with both scores. WVU denied BU a shot for the final 71 minutes and finished with a 25-3 edge. The Bears did not place a shot on-frame.
Sitting at No. 5 in the latest NCAA RPI, the Mountaineers enter Big 12 play ranked No. 2 in the conference in save percentage (0.824), No. 3 in goals-against average (0.58) and No. 5 in scoring offense (1.89 goals/game).
Abam paces WVU with 11 points (5 G, 1 A). She and classmate Heather Kaleiohi are tied for No. 4 in the Big 12 with a 0.5 goals/game average. Kaleiohi and sophomore forward Hannah Abraham rank No. 4 in the conference with two game-winning goals.
Freshman goalkeeper Rylee Foster enters the weekend with a 5-1-1 record between the posts and a 0.56 GAA, the third-best mark in the Big 12.
BU opened its Big 12 slate with a 1-0-1 showing last weekend, playing to a 1-1 double-overtime draw against Texas on Sept. 23, before earning a 2-1 overtime victory at Oklahoma State on Sept. 25.
Undefeated in 21 of their last 26 matches, the Bears are paced by sophomore forward Lauren Piercy’s 14 points (6 G, 2 A). Piercy, who shared the 2015 Big 12 Freshman of the Year honor with Mountaineer sophomore Bianca St. Georges, ranks No. 2 nationally in game-winning goals (5) and No. 3 in the Big 12 in points per game (1.17).
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