Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Izzo-Brown’s 2019 Mountaineers Young But Talented
August 22, 2019 05:02 PM | Women's Soccer
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Nikki Izzo-Brown typically goes into every season with an open mind, but this year it's even more open than usual.
Replacing seven starters from a 15-4-4 team that was knocked out of last year's NCAA Tournament by Wake Forest on penalty kicks is a good reason to give pause.
"You don't know what you don't know," Izzo-Brown says on the eve of her 24thseason at West Virginia. The veteran coach has made NCAA Tournament appearances and top 25 rankings the expectation around here, which is why nobody blinked where her team was tabbed No. 11 in the preseason coaches' poll earlier this month.
But if you look more closely at what she's replacing, and mix that in with an early season schedule that includes half of last year's Women's College Cup and a Penn State team that reached the Elite Eight, you have to wonder what they were thinking.
"It's very dangerous when you rank kids on what they've done prior to college," Izzo-Brown admitted. "To the team's credit and to the freshman class' credit, there are a lot of talented players here that have definitely put us in a position for these high rankings; now what they want to do is prove that we deserve them."
That assignment won't be easy with No. 3 Stanford, No. 6 Penn State, No. 7 Georgetown and No. 9 Virginia all on the schedule before Sept. 15.
Matches against Duquesne tomorrow, High Point next Friday and Stony Brook on Sept. 12 won't be walks in the park either.
"We've got to get a couple of wins," Izzo-Brown said. "It's just, 'Chin up, eyes up and just keep getting better.' Obviously, these opponents aren't going to be easy. This is a game of chances. It's a game of inches, and we just want to be playing our best soccer at the end of the year. However, we've got to win. That's why we're here."
Izzo-Brown singled out the preseason work put forth by senior forward Jade Gentile, junior forward Lauren Segalla and sophomore forward Alina Stahl. Those three, plus freshman Enzi Broussard and Memphis transfer Jess Lisi, are probably from where the goals are going to come.
"Jade Gentile came ready," Izzo-Brown said. "She's a senior and she's had limited minutes, but she just wrapped it around 'my senior year is going to be my best year.' We expect big things from her, not only scoring goals, but creating chances.
"Then you kind of turn to Lauren up top and you go, 'Okay Lauren, you've got to keep building on what you've done thus far.' Alina Stahl is doing some really good things. We lost her to injury last year, but she's back; Enzi Broussard is a freshman who hunts the net really well for us and Jess Lisi has really come on strong lately."
No matter who those goal scorers are, Izzo-Brown believes there will eventually be enough of them to keep teams from ganging up on one or two players.
"I think there is a ton of depth on this team, and there is versatility," she pointed out. "You do love having that one player who just scores all of the goals, but I do think it will be tough to scout us because they can come from anywhere."
In charge of keeping the scoresheet clean is preseason All-Big 12 keeper Rylee Foster, a Hermann Trophy candidate this year.
Foster produced 11 of West Virginia's 12 clean sheets last season and her career 0.55 goals against average is currently the best in school history. Foster doesn't have WVU's three top defenders from last year in front of her this season, so she could be facing more chances this year.
"(Having Foster back) is a great start, but we lost three seniors in the back so she's got to be a huge leader in the back for us," Izzo-Brown conceded.
Izzo-Brown said she liked the way her young team trained during preseason camp. She didn't have to coach effort this fall, which is always a good starting point.
"They're very engaged. They understand the level and the standard that has been established here before them," Izzo-Brown said. "They understand there are huge shoes to fill, and they don't want this year to be a drop-off just because they are young.
"I like that mentality," she continued. "Then you add the work rate. They've really responded and worked hard this preseason where I haven't really had to get after them about working. If it's hard-working talent that's going to be tough to beat."
Friday's season opener against Duquesne will kick off at 7 p.m. and will be livestreamed on WVUsports.com, Roku, AppleTV and the popular mobile app WVU Game Day.
Women's Soccer Preseason Notebook
* West Virginia was picked to win the Big 12 in the preseason coaches' poll for the seventh consecutive year. The Mountaineers have won the Big 12 regular season title five times since joining the league in 2012. Izzo-Brown needs 10 wins this year to reach 350 for her career at WVU.
Including one season at West Virginia Wesleyan, Izzo-Brown's career record is 353-116-53, which means her days of sneaking up on other teams is long gone.
"I loved that! I'm such a win-one-for-the-Gipper kind of coach, too," she laughed.
* Besides Foster, sophomore outside back Jordan Brewster is the only other returning defensive starter in 2019. Brewster, from North Canton, Ohio, joined Foster on the Preseason All-Big 12 Team.
* Segalla is the team's top returning scorer with 14 points, consisting of five goals and four assists. Three of her five goals scored last season were game winners.
* Lisi, who scored 10 goals in two seasons at Memphis, continues West Virginia's recent trend of adding four-year transfers. The Mountaineers originally recruited her out Woodbridge, Ontario, when she played for the Woodbridge Strikers.
"If they have the right attitude and they can kind of fill a need, we're very open minded to it," Izzo-Brown said. "In the recruiting world you can't always get everybody and we hope that kids always know that we are an option if they don't go well when they don't pick West Virginia.
"I'm never offended when I'm the second choice," she added.
* For years, Canada was always a fertile recruiting area for West Virginia, but recently Izzo-Brown's roster hasn't had as many Canadians.
That changes this year with three key additions: Kayza Massey of Ottawa, Ontario, Aaliyah Scott of Pickering, Ontario, and Julianne Vallerand of Terrebonne, Quebec.
There are five Canadian players on this year's roster.
"We're super excited about all of them," Izzo-Brown said.
Spain (Stefany Ferrer-Vanginkel) and England (Isabella Sibley and Grace Smith) are also represented on the Mountaineer roster this year.
* Possessing the ball has always been one of the hallmarks of Izzo-Brown's success through the years and that will always first and foremost with her teams, but she said she's open to playing a more open style if her players can handle it.
"I think there are going to be certain things you are definitely going to see from us," she predicted. "I think we have the right people in place. We definitely play out of the back, there's no question, but then we have a couple of different things that we're tweaking and we'll play to those strengths too.
"You will see a little bit different stuff going on, but all in all you'll still see that possession style and we'll get after it directly when we can," she added. "You've got to go north to score."
* Izzo-Brown said what will make her happiest around 9:30 on Friday night will be watching her young team out-work the Dukes.
"We put all of these ideas into place, but at the end of the day a win is a win and if it's ugly, it's ugly, but I just want them to get really comfortable with their job," she said. "I told them that, 'If everyone does their job I'm going to be real happy because then we know we can count on a team.' That's team work."
Replacing seven starters from a 15-4-4 team that was knocked out of last year's NCAA Tournament by Wake Forest on penalty kicks is a good reason to give pause.
"You don't know what you don't know," Izzo-Brown says on the eve of her 24thseason at West Virginia. The veteran coach has made NCAA Tournament appearances and top 25 rankings the expectation around here, which is why nobody blinked where her team was tabbed No. 11 in the preseason coaches' poll earlier this month.
But if you look more closely at what she's replacing, and mix that in with an early season schedule that includes half of last year's Women's College Cup and a Penn State team that reached the Elite Eight, you have to wonder what they were thinking.
"It's very dangerous when you rank kids on what they've done prior to college," Izzo-Brown admitted. "To the team's credit and to the freshman class' credit, there are a lot of talented players here that have definitely put us in a position for these high rankings; now what they want to do is prove that we deserve them."
That assignment won't be easy with No. 3 Stanford, No. 6 Penn State, No. 7 Georgetown and No. 9 Virginia all on the schedule before Sept. 15.
Matches against Duquesne tomorrow, High Point next Friday and Stony Brook on Sept. 12 won't be walks in the park either.
"We've got to get a couple of wins," Izzo-Brown said. "It's just, 'Chin up, eyes up and just keep getting better.' Obviously, these opponents aren't going to be easy. This is a game of chances. It's a game of inches, and we just want to be playing our best soccer at the end of the year. However, we've got to win. That's why we're here."
Izzo-Brown singled out the preseason work put forth by senior forward Jade Gentile, junior forward Lauren Segalla and sophomore forward Alina Stahl. Those three, plus freshman Enzi Broussard and Memphis transfer Jess Lisi, are probably from where the goals are going to come.
"Jade Gentile came ready," Izzo-Brown said. "She's a senior and she's had limited minutes, but she just wrapped it around 'my senior year is going to be my best year.' We expect big things from her, not only scoring goals, but creating chances.
"Then you kind of turn to Lauren up top and you go, 'Okay Lauren, you've got to keep building on what you've done thus far.' Alina Stahl is doing some really good things. We lost her to injury last year, but she's back; Enzi Broussard is a freshman who hunts the net really well for us and Jess Lisi has really come on strong lately."
No matter who those goal scorers are, Izzo-Brown believes there will eventually be enough of them to keep teams from ganging up on one or two players.
"I think there is a ton of depth on this team, and there is versatility," she pointed out. "You do love having that one player who just scores all of the goals, but I do think it will be tough to scout us because they can come from anywhere."
In charge of keeping the scoresheet clean is preseason All-Big 12 keeper Rylee Foster, a Hermann Trophy candidate this year.Foster produced 11 of West Virginia's 12 clean sheets last season and her career 0.55 goals against average is currently the best in school history. Foster doesn't have WVU's three top defenders from last year in front of her this season, so she could be facing more chances this year.
"(Having Foster back) is a great start, but we lost three seniors in the back so she's got to be a huge leader in the back for us," Izzo-Brown conceded.
Izzo-Brown said she liked the way her young team trained during preseason camp. She didn't have to coach effort this fall, which is always a good starting point.
"They're very engaged. They understand the level and the standard that has been established here before them," Izzo-Brown said. "They understand there are huge shoes to fill, and they don't want this year to be a drop-off just because they are young.
"I like that mentality," she continued. "Then you add the work rate. They've really responded and worked hard this preseason where I haven't really had to get after them about working. If it's hard-working talent that's going to be tough to beat."
Friday's season opener against Duquesne will kick off at 7 p.m. and will be livestreamed on WVUsports.com, Roku, AppleTV and the popular mobile app WVU Game Day.
Women's Soccer Preseason Notebook
* West Virginia was picked to win the Big 12 in the preseason coaches' poll for the seventh consecutive year. The Mountaineers have won the Big 12 regular season title five times since joining the league in 2012. Izzo-Brown needs 10 wins this year to reach 350 for her career at WVU.
Including one season at West Virginia Wesleyan, Izzo-Brown's career record is 353-116-53, which means her days of sneaking up on other teams is long gone.
"I loved that! I'm such a win-one-for-the-Gipper kind of coach, too," she laughed.
* Besides Foster, sophomore outside back Jordan Brewster is the only other returning defensive starter in 2019. Brewster, from North Canton, Ohio, joined Foster on the Preseason All-Big 12 Team.
* Segalla is the team's top returning scorer with 14 points, consisting of five goals and four assists. Three of her five goals scored last season were game winners.
* Lisi, who scored 10 goals in two seasons at Memphis, continues West Virginia's recent trend of adding four-year transfers. The Mountaineers originally recruited her out Woodbridge, Ontario, when she played for the Woodbridge Strikers.
"If they have the right attitude and they can kind of fill a need, we're very open minded to it," Izzo-Brown said. "In the recruiting world you can't always get everybody and we hope that kids always know that we are an option if they don't go well when they don't pick West Virginia.
"I'm never offended when I'm the second choice," she added.
* For years, Canada was always a fertile recruiting area for West Virginia, but recently Izzo-Brown's roster hasn't had as many Canadians.
That changes this year with three key additions: Kayza Massey of Ottawa, Ontario, Aaliyah Scott of Pickering, Ontario, and Julianne Vallerand of Terrebonne, Quebec.
There are five Canadian players on this year's roster.
"We're super excited about all of them," Izzo-Brown said.
Spain (Stefany Ferrer-Vanginkel) and England (Isabella Sibley and Grace Smith) are also represented on the Mountaineer roster this year.
* Possessing the ball has always been one of the hallmarks of Izzo-Brown's success through the years and that will always first and foremost with her teams, but she said she's open to playing a more open style if her players can handle it.
"I think there are going to be certain things you are definitely going to see from us," she predicted. "I think we have the right people in place. We definitely play out of the back, there's no question, but then we have a couple of different things that we're tweaking and we'll play to those strengths too.
"You will see a little bit different stuff going on, but all in all you'll still see that possession style and we'll get after it directly when we can," she added. "You've got to go north to score."
* Izzo-Brown said what will make her happiest around 9:30 on Friday night will be watching her young team out-work the Dukes.
"We put all of these ideas into place, but at the end of the day a win is a win and if it's ugly, it's ugly, but I just want them to get really comfortable with their job," she said. "I told them that, 'If everyone does their job I'm going to be real happy because then we know we can count on a team.' That's team work."
Players Mentioned
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