WVU Women's Soccer Mentally Preparing During Unexpected Downtime

WVU Women's Soccer head coach Nikki Izzo-Brown has her team breaking down film and mentally preparing for the upcoming season

West Virginia University Women’s Soccer has never posted a losing record since its inaugural season in 1996 and it's been all under the direction of head coach Nikki Izzo-Brown.

It only took five seasons to grab the program's first NCAA appearance and 12 years for its first conference championship. In 24 seasons, the Mountaineers have captured 17 conference championships (including seven conference tournament championships), nine from the Big 12.

Finishing the 2019 season at 12-8-2 (seven of the eight losses came within the top 25), West Virginia made its 20th consecutive NCAA tournament appearance, and the programs seventh Sweet 16. This was after losing most of the team's production following the 2018 season. 

The consecutive tournament streak is top five in the country and doesn't appear to be in doubt in this fall. 

Heading into the 2020 campaign, the Mountaineers will have to replace three starters including goalkeeper Rylee Foster, who ranked second in the conference in shutouts with eight. Izzo-Brown brought in junior Boston College transfer Maddie Murphy to compete with sophomore Kayza Massey to start between the posts.

However, the Mountaineers return team-leading scorer junior Alina Stahl (8, ranking eighth in the Big 12) but with only one senior on the team, this is still a young Mountaineer squad and missing spring practice, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was critical to player development.

Additionally, West Virginia also missed out on five spring exhibitions along with going on a tour in northern Italy.

"Not that I have favorite parts of my season, but I just love developing my players,” said Izzo-Brown. “And, when you’re in the fall season, it's about developing our system of play and dealing with opposing team system of play. Our spring season is about our team concept, but individual concepts. I really miss maximizing my athlete’s potential and really developing… I really miss that aspect because we have so much time to spend with that.”

One of the major concerns is injuries and Izzo-Brown cited the recently quick start of the German professional soccer league, Bundesliga, had so many injuries and they needed to be “careful” when the Mountaineers start back up.

“That's been a huge concern of mine because of the spring season and how we’re in the weight room and developing the athlete, physically, injury prevention, so we missed all off that. So, then you move into the summer months and they can’t play right now, and some kids don’t have any access to weights or anything like that.”

During the downtime, the NCAA has allowed coaches and players to break down film using the Zoom app, and although the best tool is on the field training, Izzo-Brown believes they’re grasping the tactics.

"All of us coaches, we’ve been breaking down film and really showing the tactics and the expectations and showing different athletes and their movements. So, they’re really having a good understanding just with film. I’m just so thankful that they’re so open-minded in learning in watching film."

Recently, the Big 12 Conference board of directors announced that voluntary workouts can start on July 1 for soccer-student athletes. Izzo-Brown stated that they would need the two weeks for preparation the NCAA allows.

However, there is no official start time, and no regular-season schedule is in place but when football gets the all-clear, Izzo-Brown said they'll follow suit. 

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