Coming off their first win of the season, the Mountaineers (1-0-1) will be heading to University Park, where they haven’t won since 2009, to take on rival No. 10 Penn State (1-0-1) for their first road match of the season.
The Mountaineers started off their season with a 0-0 draw at home against Indiana, despite creating numerous scoring opportunities. They remedied that in their next match, when they put five goals in the back of the net against Saint Joseph’s in an impressive 5-1 victory.
Penn State earned their first win of the season in their last match, taking down Duquesne 3-0 at home after drawing No. 19 Georgetown 2-2 in their season opener.
The Nittany Lions made it to the sweet sixteen of the NCAA tournament last season before being beaten by South Carolina 3-0. They came into the season ranked No. 14 in the preseason poll.
WVU head coach Nikki Izzo-Brown is aware of how big of a matchup this is for her squad,
“We know this is going to be a huge test for us, obviously there is always that geographical rivalry between the two programs, and so we’re expecting to walk into the Lion’s Den literally on Thursday and gonna be tested.”
Last season saw the Nittany Lions storm into Morgantown and take down the Mountaineers 2-0. The Mountaineers haven’t beaten Penn State since 2017, when they won 2-1 in Morgantown, and have lost two in a row and three of the last four matchups with one draw.
Photo by Wesley Shoemaker, Blue Gold Sports
