Mountaineers Settle for Draw
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (August 9, 2015) – The No. 12-ranked West Virginia University women’s soccer team played to a 90-minute 2-2 draw against Wright State, today, at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.
The match was the Mountaineers’ first of two preseason exhibitions.
“We learned today that if you don’t finish your chances, they will come back to haunt you,” said WVU coach Nikki Izzo-Brown. “You have to give all the credit to Wright State – they battled from the first whistle to the last.
“We also saw a lot of good things today that we can use moving forward. The learning opportunity we are going to have after the breakdown of this game is huge – this is a great opportunity for this team to get better.”
The Mountaineers came back from two one-goal deficits today.
Down 2-1 in the 85th minute, sophomore forward Michaela Abam found a bouncing ball inside the 18-yeard box and blasted it toward the near upper-left corner.
Abam finished the day with three points, as she also assisted on the team’s first goal in the 48th minute, feeding the ball to senior forward Kailey Utley, who then beat two defenders inside the box before placing her high shot out of the Wright State goalkeeper’s hands.
Wright State got on the board first, as a header in the 22nd minute got behind the hands of sophomore goalkeeper Michelle Newhouse. The Raiders put themselves ahead 2-1 in the 79th minute off a breakaway goal that beat senior goalkeeper Hannah Steadman far right post.
Newhouse and Steadman each played 45 minutes in net. Newhouse finished with one save.
The Mountaineers ended the day with a 10-3 advantage in shots on-goal and a 6-2 edge in corner kicks.
WVU had several first-half chances. Freshman forward Nia Gordon had a great look four minutes into the game, as her shot from right of the penalty-kick line soared toward the top of the net, but the Raider goalkeeper managed to punch it up and over the crossbar at the last second.
Utley almost capitalized on a great feed from junior Ashley Woolpert in the 20th minute, but her shot from just inside the box went high.
Sophomore forward Amandine Pierre-Louis followed with her own chance 10 minutes later, but the cross bar denied her opportunity, as her shot from 10-yards out bounced out of play.
After going into the locker room down 1-0 at halftime, WVU nearly took a one-goal lead in the 51st minute. Senior midfielder Amanda Hill fed the ball into the box, but headers from junior defender Carly Black and Abam were turned away by Raider defenders.
The Mountaineers travel to Washington, D.C., Wednesday, Aug. 12, for their second and final preseason exhibition. WVU and Georgetown will kick from Shaw Field at 5 p.m.
For more information on the Mountaineers, follow @WVUWomensSoccer on Twitter.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (August 9, 2015) – The No. 12-ranked West Virginia University women’s soccer team played to a 90-minute 2-2 draw against Wright State, today, at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.
The match was the Mountaineers’ first of two preseason exhibitions.
“We learned today that if you don’t finish your chances, they will come back to haunt you,” said WVU coach Nikki Izzo-Brown. “You have to give all the credit to Wright State – they battled from the first whistle to the last.
“We also saw a lot of good things today that we can use moving forward. The learning opportunity we are going to have after the breakdown of this game is huge – this is a great opportunity for this team to get better.”
The Mountaineers came back from two one-goal deficits today.
Down 2-1 in the 85th minute, sophomore forward Michaela Abam found a bouncing ball inside the 18-yeard box and blasted it toward the near upper-left corner.
Abam finished the day with three points, as she also assisted on the team’s first goal in the 48th minute, feeding the ball to senior forward Kailey Utley, who then beat two defenders inside the box before placing her high shot out of the Wright State goalkeeper’s hands.
Wright State got on the board first, as a header in the 22nd minute got behind the hands of sophomore goalkeeper Michelle Newhouse. The Raiders put themselves ahead 2-1 in the 79th minute off a breakaway goal that beat senior goalkeeper Hannah Steadman far right post.
Newhouse and Steadman each played 45 minutes in net. Newhouse finished with one save.
The Mountaineers ended the day with a 10-3 advantage in shots on-goal and a 6-2 edge in corner kicks.
WVU had several first-half chances. Freshman forward Nia Gordon had a great look four minutes into the game, as her shot from right of the penalty-kick line soared toward the top of the net, but the Raider goalkeeper managed to punch it up and over the crossbar at the last second.
Utley almost capitalized on a great feed from junior Ashley Woolpert in the 20th minute, but her shot from just inside the box went high.
Sophomore forward Amandine Pierre-Louis followed with her own chance 10 minutes later, but the cross bar denied her opportunity, as her shot from 10-yards out bounced out of play.
After going into the locker room down 1-0 at halftime, WVU nearly took a one-goal lead in the 51st minute. Senior midfielder Amanda Hill fed the ball into the box, but headers from junior defender Carly Black and Abam were turned away by Raider defenders.
The Mountaineers travel to Washington, D.C., Wednesday, Aug. 12, for their second and final preseason exhibition. WVU and Georgetown will kick from Shaw Field at 5 p.m.
For more information on the Mountaineers, follow @WVUWomensSoccer on Twitter.
