WVU to end spring against Alderson-Broaddus

West Virginia women’s soccer head coach Nikki Izzo-Brown could not be happier with her team heading into the last game of the spring season against Alderson-Broaddus.

"I strongly believe we have (reached our goals)," Izzo-Brown said. "Looking last weekend at what I’ve asked the individual players and the team to do, I definitely feel like there was a huge learning curve from the spring."

Izzo-Brown wanted to see the Mountaineers work on ball possession, as well as transitioning from defense to offense. Defensively, Izzo-Brown preached about maintaining her sacred shutout.

"I wanted us to be able to keep the ball, (and) we really wanted to be able to change the point of attack and do that collectively as a team," Izzo-Brown said. "Obviously, minimizing goals was something we really talked about.

"Focusing on those shutouts, focusing on those things to eliminate moments where a goal is scored (from) a bad pass or not having good technical awareness."

One Mountaineer who has stepped up her game in Izzo-Brown’s eyes is Sophomore Frances Silva.

Silva has been on a scoring frenzy this spring, peaking when she scored all six Mountaineer goals when they went 3-1 on their Spanish trip.

Silva will look to continue her offensive onslaught on Sunday when
Alderson-Broaddus visits Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium at 3 p.m.

With the end of the spring season, comes the reveal of the women’s fall regular season schedule. Izzo-Brown will lead the Mountaineers to their first season playing a Big 12 Conference schedule.

"I think just from the RPI, that the Big 12 is better," Izzo-Brown said. "You look at Oklahoma State, who’s third in the country all year long, and Texas A&M who’s obviously leaving but has done some things in the Big 12, let alone Texas.

"I just know what their history is and what their RPI says."

Besides taking on a Big 12 conference schedule for the first time, the Mountaineers will face an extremely tough non-conference schedule. The non-conference
schedule features bouts with Penn State, Miami and Purdue.

"I think you really have to be exposed early on. It’s what you have to develop before league play," Izzo-Brown said. "I’ve always thought to be the best, you have to play the best and at the end of the year we want to win a national championship.

Izzo-Brown and the Mountaineers will learn what it is like to play a national champion when they take on defending national champ Stanford at the Penn State Invitational.

"Stanford has probably been the best team in the country for the past five years making it to the finals three times and finally winning it last year," Izzo-Brown said. "For us to have an opportunity to play a team like Stanford will be tremendous (because) it’s going to be a measuring stick.

"We are going to go into that game trying to compete against the best team in the country, so we’re excited about that opportunity."