WVU Women’s Soccer: Top 5 Showdown in Durham, NC

Your #4 nationally ranked women’s soccer team will take on the #5 Duke Blue Devils tonight at 7 PM in Durham, North Carolina. If you really want to, you can even watch the game online through the WatchESPN app.

Rio silver medalists Kadeisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence, who played for Team Canada, will help lead the Mountaineers against the Blue Devils tonight. According to WVUSports.com,

The match is WVU’s fourth in as many weeks against a ranked opponent, a first for the Mountaineers since at least the 2005 season. The squad is 2-0-1 against ranked teams in 2016, earning a 1-1 draw at No. 2 Penn State in the season opener and wins in Morgantown against No. 8 Clemson (1-0, Aug. 26) and No. 19 Ohio State (2-1, Sept. 4).

Duke, the 2015 NCAA Tournament runners-up, is the Mountaineers’ third top-10 opponent this season. With its win over the Tigers in August, WVU has defeated at least one top-10 team in each of the last 12 seasons. The squad is 14-11-3 all-time against top-10 teams.

“Duke is a very attacking-minded team; we’re going to see all sorts of weapons coming at us,” Mountaineer coach Nikki Izzo-Brown said. “They have an older, experienced team. We’re going to see some of the best soccer players in the country coming at us Friday night. It’s going to be an incredible challenge to go in there and hold off the Blue Devils.”

The Mountaineers tied in their two exhibition games this season against Michigan and Virginia before tying in their first matchup against #2 Penn State in double overtime. Nikki Izzo-Brown has then coached the team to five straight wins including three shutouts. The Mountaineers previously defeated #19 Ohio State on Sunday.

The matchup with Duke will be the third meeting in four years. West Virginia has never beaten the Blue Devils, with Duke owning a victory and a tie over the Mountaineers. West Virginia will mark Duke’s third straight top-10 opponent.