After winning the Big 12 tournament, West Virginia (10-4-7, 4-1-4), was selected as the No. 7 seed in their region of the NCAA tournament and matched with Virginia Tech (10-6-2, 4-5-1).
The Mountaineers have won five straight matches coming into the tournament and only conceded three goals over those matches. They have played two consecutive shut-outs over Texas and TCU in the Big 12 tournament, with those teams being the two highest-scoring teams in the conference during the regular season.
The Mountaineers have focused on shutting opposing offenses down in the late part of the season, led by co-Big 12 goalkeeper Kayza Massey who made a combined 12 saves over the matches against Texas and TCU. The defense is also led by All-Big 12 first-team defender Jordan Brewster and All-Big 12 defender Gabrielle Robinson.
Meanwhile, Virginia Tech has only won one of its previous six matches, and failed to qualify for the ACC tournament. The Hokies have conceded 13 goals over that period, while only scoring 8.
Leading the charge for the Hokies is Freshman forward Taylor Price who has 8 goals in 18 matches, to go with 3 assists, also leading the team with 19 points.
For the Mountaineers, their late-season charge was led by upper-classmen. fifth-year senior Lauren Segalla scored a goal in the first two matches of the Big 12 tournament, and fifth-year senior Jordan Brewster scored a penalty kick goal against Oklahoma State and added the overtime winner against TCU.
The match is set to be played at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium on Sunday, November 13th at 1 p.m., and being streamed on ESPN+.
Photo by WVU Athletics
