(scroll down for the introduction and link to the Seattle U. update)

 

West Virginia Women crush Towson and High Point

Ian Thomson is a freelance soccer reporter and founder of The Soccer Observer web site. Follow him on Twitter at @SoccerObserver.

West Virginia’s final tune-ups ahead of their Big 12 Conference debut against Texas Tech Friday couldn’t have gone much smoother for the Mountaineers’ offense and for makeshift right-back Jess Crowder.

WVU crushed Towson 5-0 last Friday before going one better in Sunday’s 6-0 blowout against High Point. Junior forward Frances Silva bagged a brace in both games, top scorer Kate Schwindel tied a school record with seven points (two goals and three assists) against High Point, and freshmen Annalika Steyn and Leah Emaus notched their first collegiate goals.

Two shutouts at the other end provided further evidence that the issues that blotted West Virginia’s opening games are being mitigated. Crowder has played her part since slotting into the defense for the Mountaineers’ 1-0 win over Stanford on Aug. 26. Her continued development is crucial to WVU’s success – defense, after all, wins championships, as the team’s Head Coach Nikki-Izzo Brown is wont to say.

Brown’s pre-season plans for her back line were derailed before the opening kick-off by an ACL injury to freshman Carly Black. A settled look has now emerged, after some initial tinkering, with Bry McCarthy in her usual left-back role, Emaus and Mallory Smith partnering in the center and Crowder on the right. 

“Nikki’s been getting on to us about staying compact and staying with each other,” Crowder told TopDrawerSoccer.com after Friday’s win over Towson. “Overall I think we’ve been progressing a lot, especially with three of us never being back there before this year.”

Crowder, like Emaus and Smith, is more used to battling it out in midfield rather than defense. The sophomore from Cary, N.C., began playing soccer as a four-year-old, around the same time that her mother, Ellain, enrolled her in taekwondo classes. Crowder earned her black belt nine years later. Her time spent at the Dojang, the gathering place where martial arts’ students train, helps to prevent her from getting flustered when opposing wingers approach.

“I think I’ve got a lot of my composure because of that,” said Crowder, whose cross-training has also assisted her balance and instilled in her a fearless attitude when launching into tackles.

“I might come out limping, but I’ll be able to stick in the game and finish it out,” Crowder said.

Those characteristics have earned her the monikers “Silent Assassin” and “Ninja Warrior” among her teammates.

“Jess is a tenacious defender,” said center-back Smith following Sunday’s win over High Point. “She just has that mentality. She wants the ball and she’s going to go in hard. She shows that in practice and now it’s really highlighted in our games.”

Watching the Carolina Courage in the Women’s United Soccer Association from 2001 to 2003 aided Crowder’s development, she said. The Courage, spurred on by former United States international Danielle Fotopoulos, won the 2002 title after beating a Washington Freedom side containing Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach by 3-2 in the championship game.

Fotopoulos holds the all-time NCAA Division One scoring record with 118 goals in 92 games for Florida. She scored the winning goal against North Carolina in the 1998 NCAA championship game and earned that year’s NSCAA National Player of the Year accolade. It’s unlikely that Crowder will come close to emulating her hero, as she’s yet to score after 23 appearances for the Mountaineers. That won’t stop her from trying to get forward, particularly as Izzo-Brown likes to see her full-backs supporting the offense.

“I’ve been trying to get forward a lot more, learning from (McCarthy on the other flank),” Crowder said. “I’ve been doing my best to copy what she’s been doing, getting into the attack and getting those balls across.

“It’s my job now.”

 

Home not-so-welcome for Seattle University

Liviu Bird is Assistant Editor of Prost America and a contributor for The New York Times Goal Blog. Follow him on Twitter at @liviubird.

Coming home after three straight games on the road, Seattle University received a rude homecoming from No. 6-ranked UC Santa Barbara on Sunday. The Gauchos dominated from start to finish, winning by a final score of 6-2. Eight different players scored in the game, including UCSB leading scorer Achille Campion.

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