MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — History, of sorts, will be made Friday, when the West Virginia women’s soccer teams becomes the first WVU athletic program to travel and compete under the coronavirus guidelines.
As for as what is known, that may be the long and short of it for WVU head coach Nikki Izzo-Brown.
“It’s been really interesting to think about something you’ve never experienced before,” Izzo-Brown said as the Mountaineers prepared to play at Iowa State at 7 p.m. to open the season. “Hey, that’s my strength. I’m an old lady. I’ve got all of these years in, but not COVID years.”
A season under the COVID-19 pandemic meant the wiping out of all nonconference games.
It may also mean no Big 12 tournament come November — the options there are currently under discussion — and the NCAA tournament in the fall has already been postponed with a possibility of playing it in the spring of 2021.
“When it comes to the rules, I kind of giggle and I want everyone to giggle with me, because it’s been the wild, wild West,” Izzo-Brown said. “With COVID, anything goes. I don’t mean that with any harsh intent. I’ve never been part of a preseason where every conference was coming in with their own rules.
“I think when we pull into the spring, the NCAA wants to give us an NCAA tournament. It may be with less than the 64 teams. That’s about all I know. For me to predict what will happen this spring, it would be very interesting.”
As it stands now, there are nine Big 12 games on the Mountaineers’ schedule, all of them to be played on Fridays.
There are no guarantees after that.
And there may be more surprises on the way. Normally thought of as one of the top programs in the Big 12, the Mountaineers have only one senior on their roster and was picked to finish fourth in the league’s preseason poll.
“It has been very challenging, because they haven’t understood how this all works in a normal year,” Izzo-Brown said. “Now you throw in a COVID year, and you go, ‘Wait a minute, we had a schedule but now they say it won’t count, but now it might count. Maybe we’ll have an NCAA tournament.’ We’re just going in day-to-day as a gift.
“We’re going to be driven. We’re going to compete. We’re going to go hard and get better. Every opportunity we have to win, we’re going to go after it. Whatever happens beyond our control will happen beyond our control.”
For the first time in four seasons, WVU will be without Rylee Foster in goal.
Izzo-Brown said it could be a game-time decision on whether to start sophomore Kayza Massey, Boston College transfer Maddie Murphy or freshman Jessica Kasacek in goal.
Iowa State was picked to finish in a tie for last in the Big 12 preseason poll and finished 0-9 in league play last season.
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