By Greg DeVries
Sports Writer
The No. 20 Baylor women’s soccer team will travel the country roads to Morgantown, W.V. to take on the No. 25 West Virginia Mountaineers.
The Mountaineers are 9-3-3 on the season and 5-0 in Big 12 play. They have not lost a game since Aug 31, but the Bears’ unbeaten streak stretches back to Aug. 26.
“We’ve never played them before, so it’s not like another Big 12 game where you are kind of familiar with your opponent,” senior defender Carlie Davis said. “We’re obviously expecting them to be good. They’ve obviously had a great season so far.”
Mountaineer junior forward Frances Silva leads the team in scoring with ten goals on the year. This accounts for over one-third of West Virginia’s total goals.
Mountaineer sophomore forward Kate Schwindel is also an offensive threat. She has scored eight goals on the year and has recorded seven assists.
“West Virginia is a great team,” head coach Marci Jobson said. “Their coach has, for years, done a solid job with that program. They’re a very good attacking team. They’ve got a lot of special pieces, and we’re just going to have to, on that given day, try to do our best to shut those pieces down and try to score off of a set piece or score off of our plays.”
The Bears often try to dominate teams by being very physical. West Virginia plays a similar style. Both teams pressure the ball a lot and try to play quickly.
The Bears probably have more depth than the Mountaineers.
Baylor has 18 players that have played in at least ten games, and West Virginia only has 15.
Eleven Mountaineers have recorded goals on the season compared to Baylor’s 15.
The two teams appear to be relatively even on paper.
If they are even and the game goes into overtime, the Bears probably have the advantage.
Baylor is 2-1-2 in overtime games this year, and West Virginia is 0-3-1.
“A lot of [overtime] is mental,” senior midfielder Hanna Gilmore said. “We are very prepared endurance-wise, but we always think back to the things that we do, like the plate pushes…and everything we have done up to this point…we kind of like overtime. We can totally beat anybody in overtime.”
