Preview: No 12 West Virginia vs Duquesne, 5 p.m.

NCAA Women’s Soccer 

No 12 West Virginia (2-1-0) vs Duquesne (1-0-1)

Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021 |  5 p.m. | Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium, Morgantown, WV

Live Stream:  Big 12 Now on ESPN+  Live Stats: WVUsports.com

Gameday Updates

Look for highlights and updates from this match to be posted here as both schools play their second game in three days.  Both schools feature a number of former local high school and Pittsburgh-area club standout players.

Recent WVU / Duquesne Women’s Soccer Coverage on PSN 

Duquesne women’s soccer faces adversity in draw vs Valpo

West Virginia Game Notes & More from Coach Nikki Izzo Brown 

“We have a quick turnaround this weekend, and we know Sunday is going to be a tough game,” Mountaineer coach Nikki Izzo-Brown said. “With less than 48 hours to prepare it’s going to be tough, but we look forward to getting back home and playing in front of our home crowd.”

In the squad’s first away game of the campaign, WVU tallied a 3-1 win at Bucknell on Aug. 27. A trio of Mountaineers scored a goal in the win, while senior defender Jordan Brewster’s 59th-minute penalty kick was credited as the game winner, the second of her career. Sophomore forward/midfielder Abby Rodriguez tallied her first career strike in the contest, while junior defender Julianne Vallerand recorded her second goal of the season to lift WVU to the two-goal win. West Virginia outshot Bucknell, 13-7, with WVU placing nine of those on goal.

Sunday’s matchup marks the 12th all-time meeting between West Virginia and Duquesne, as the Mountaineers hold a 9-0-2 advantage in the series. The Dukes were just the second team Izzo-Brown’s infant Mountaineers ever played, as they met on Sept. 4, 1996, in WVU‘s first season of competition. The two squads battled to a 1-1 tie in overtime in Pittsburgh.

Since that first matchup, West Virginia has beaten Duquesne in every match but one, a Sept. 6, 2011, contest which resulted in a 1-1, double overtime draw. The two programs last met in 2019, with the Mountaineers coming away with a 2-0, season-opening win at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.

Al Alvine enters his 10th season as the head coach of the Duquesne women’s soccer team. He is the Dukes’ all-time winningest coach with an overall record of 67-74-21, including a 33-41-10 mark in Atlantic 10 play. He set a program record in 2015 with 12 victories, including the program’s first-ever A-10 Championship and NCAA Tournament bid.

The Dukes are 1-0-1 this season, following a 2-2 draw against Valparaiso on Aug. 27. Duquesne scored a pair of second-half goals to take the lead, but allowed a late Valpo score to send it into overtime. Emma Brundy leads the team with a pair of goals on the season, while Hannah Nguyen has two assists so far this year. Megan Virgin leads the squad in goal with 11 saves.

Duquesne Game Notes 

SERIES BREAKDOWN VS. WEST VIRGINIA

• All-Time Series: West Virginia leads, 9-0-2
• First Meeting: Sept. 4, 1996 at Duquesne – Tie-Overtime, 1-1
• Last Meeting: Aug. 23, 2019 at West Virginia – WVU won 2-0 I Recap | Box Score
• Streak: West Virginia +5

GAME NOTES 

• The Dukes are coming off of a 3-1 season-opening win against Saint Francis U (Box Score).
• Emma Bundy gave the team the lead in the 21^st-minute, while Karley Steinher scored the eventual game-winning goal in the 39^th-minute. The Dukes notched an insurance marker with a penalty-kick goal by Ashley Rodriguez in the 63^rd-minute.
• Hannah Nguyen notched assists on each of the first two goals against the Red Flash. It was her first multi-point game since posting a goal and an assist versus St. Bonaventure on Oct. 24, 2019.
• Nguyen is the first player with a multi-assist game since former Dukes player Lauren Bell collected two helpers in a 6-0 win over Youngstown State on Sept. 15, 2019.
• Jaimi Araujo had a number of high-percentage scoring opportunities versus the Red Flash. She attempted a game-high seven shots, including five on-goal.
• Araujo’s five shots on-target were the most in a single-game since Lauren Bell put five on-net against Seton Hall on Sept. 10, 2017.
• Araujo’s seven shot attempts ties for the fifth-most in a single game by a Duquesne player in program history.
• Head coach Al Alvine got an immediate boost from his newcomers in the season-opener. Cami Taylor (Central Michigan transfer) and true-freshman Mackenzie Leeder earned nods in the starting lineup, while Bailey Farabaugh (Robert Morris transfer), Kendall Donati and Mackenzie Clement each came off of the bench in the win. The newcomers totaled 193 minutes of game time for the Dukes.
• Including a 4-0 win over St. Bonaventure to close out the spring 2021 season, the Dukes have scored seven goals in their last two matches. It is the most goals scored in a two-game stretch since 2019 when Duquesne defeated Youngstown State 6-0, before collecting a 2-1 win over VCU in the following contest.
• Valparaiso and Duquesne are meeting for the first time. The Beacons are the 93^rd unique opponent in program history.
• The Dukes are winless in 11 games against teams ranked in the United Soccer Coaches Top-25. Duquesne has been defeated in all five meetings with WVU when it was ranked.
• The Dukes were picked to finish 10^th in the annual Atlantic 10 women’s soccer preseason poll announced earlier this month.
• Duquesne is coming off of a 3-5-1 abbreviated season this past spring, in which it played league front-runners Saint Louis and Dayton twice apiece.
• Head coach Al Alvine brings back eight of the top nine players in terms of minutes played.
• Goalkeeper Megan Virgin returns for the Dukes after posting a 2-5-1 mark in the spring. She ranked seventh in the A-10 with a 78.5 save percentage and third with 5.10 saves per game.
• Since 2015, the Dukes have boasted a 39-15-8 record at Rooney Field, while outscoring the opposition by a mark of 107-51 in those matches.

DUQUESNE HEAD COACH AL ALVINE (Robert Morris ’92)

• Al Alvine enters his 10^th season as the head coach of the Dukes in 2021.
• The Dukes’ all-time winningest coach boasts a record of 67-74-20 on the Bluff and 33-41-9 in Atlantic 10 play.
• Alvine inherited a three-win team prior to the 2012 season and quadrupled that total in four years.
• He set a program record with 12 victories in 2015 – which included the program’s first-ever A-10 Championship and NCAA Tournament bid.
• His teams have totaled 11 or more wins three times during his tenure.
• Alvine has coached four First-Team and three Second-Team All-Atlantic 10 picks, including 2017 A-10 Midfielder of the Year Linnea Faccenda.
• He was named the fifth head coach in Duquesne women’s soccer history on December 29, 2011.
• Alvine came to the Bluff after spending five seasons as head coach at California University of Pennsylvania, where he went 73-28-11 – including a 38-2-6 mark over his final two seasons with the Vulcans.