MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The 25th season of West Virginia University women's soccer officially kicks off at Iowa State on Friday, Sept. 11. Kickoff at the Cyclone Sports Complex in Ames, Iowa, is set for 7 p.m. ET.
 
Fans can follow along with the action with live stats of the match, courtesy of Cyclones.com.
 
"There's a lot of enthusiasm and excitement," WVU coach Nikki Izzo-Brown said. "Obviously, we'd prefer to have a more experienced team in this whole situation, but I'm really proud of the way we've stepped up as a group and have recognized the things we can control.
 
"We're just going in as driven. We're going to compete, we're going to go hard, we're going to get better, and everything opportunity we have to go win, we're going to go after it."
 
Friday marks the ninth meeting between the Mountaineers and Cyclones. WVU is a perfect 8-0 all-time against Iowa State in a series that dates back to 2012. What's more, West Virginia has scored multiple goals in all eight prior meetings against the Cyclones, including last season's 2-0 win over ISU on Sept. 27, 2019, in Morgantown. Defensively, WVU hasn't conceded an Iowa State goal in seven straight games, dating back to a 3-2, WVU win in on Oct. 7, 2012.
 
The Mountaineers are 7-0-1 in Big 12 openers since joining the conference in 2012. Additionally, the squad enters Friday's contest with a 54-7-5 record on the road since 2014.
 
West Virginia features 13 returning letterwinners off last season's 12-8-2 squad, which qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the 20th consecutive season and advanced to the Round of 16. Eight starters are back in the Gold and Blue, as well as 10 players who scored at least one goal in 2019. In all, the Mountaineers return 28 of their 35 goals from a year ago, good for 80 percent. Junior forward Alina Stahl paced the squad last season with eight goals.
 
Junior defender Jordan Brewster was named to the Preseason All-Big 12 Team last month. The North Canton, Ohio, native has twice been named to the All-Big 12 Second Team and helped WVU to nine clean sheets, while tallying four total points (1G, 2A) last season. Sophomore forward Enzi Broussard (3G, 2A) and sophomore defender Nicole Payne (3G, 2A) also return after being named to the All-Big 12 Freshman Team in 2019.
 
Iowa State is led by first-year coach Matt Fannon, who guided Bowling Green to a 41-18-7 mark in the last three seasons. The three-time reigning Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year led the Falcons to NCAA Tournament berths in each of the last two campaigns.
 
The Cyclones finished 3-15 last fall, including an 0-9 mark in Big 12 play. Senior forward Courtney Powell returns to the team after leading ISU in goals (4), points (8), shots (29) and shots on goal (13) last season.
 
West Virginia was selected to finish fourth in the 2020 Big 12 Preseason Poll, while Iowa State was picked to finish tied for ninth.
 
For more information on the Mountaineers, follow @WVUWomensSoccer on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.