PREVIEW: Women's Soccer at WVU on Sunday

PITTSBURGH - The Duquesne University women's soccer team is set to take on West Virginia on Sunday afternoon in Morgantown.

THE BASICS

August 27, 2023 | 1:00 pm | Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium (Morgantown, W.Va.)

Duquesne Dukes (1-2, 0-0 A-10)

Streak: L1 | Roster | Stats | Schedule

West Virginia Mountaineers (1-2, 0-0 Big XII)

Streak: L1 | Roster | Stats | Schedule

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BY THE NUMBERS

THE DUKES

Duquesne enters the matchup off a 2-1 loss in the final minute against Youngstown State.
DU dropped its season opener, 3-0, at Ohio, then bounced back with a 5-0 win over American last Sunday at home.
Jaimi Araujo has scored in the opening six minutes of each of the last two games and is tied for the team lead in goals (2) with Maya Matesa, who netted back-to-back scores in the win over American.
Matesa leads the team with five points, also adding an assist last game. Mackenzie Muir has two assists for DU.
Araujo leads the team with eight shots (four on goal) … Muir follows with seven, Matesa has six, and Margey Brown five, all of which have put three on target.
Maddy Neundorfer has played all 270 minutes in goal over three games and has 11 saves for a 0.688 save percentage.

LAST TIME OUT

Duquesne lost a heartbreaker, 2-1, to Youngstown State Thursday night at Rooney Field.
A game destined for a 1-1 tie, the Penguins broke free from the Dukes defense and ripped a shot into the back of the net with 36 seconds to take the lead. Neundorfer, the DU keeper, got a hand on the shot, but it wasn't enough as the ball snuck inside the post.
Jaimi Araujo scored the first goal for the second straight game with a 5th minute score, as she streaked out in front of the YSU defense on a long pass from Mackenzie Muir and a touch pass from Maya Matesa ... Araujo had a PK in the 6th minute vs. American – also DU's first goal of the season.
The Dukes applied the pressure early racking up a 9-3 shot advantage in the first 30 minutes, but could not capitalize … YSU evened out the shots the rest of the way, finishing 18-13 (7-6 on goal) in favor of DU.
Duquesne held a 5-2 edge in corner kick chances, but it was YSU converting on their first one in the 36th minute with a header to tie the game at one … DU has created a 13-2 (+11) advantage in corner kick opportunities over the past two games (8-0 with one goal off a corner vs. American).

THE MOUNTAINEERS

West Virginia, members of the Big 12, enters in a similar circumstance as the Dukes. Both teams are 1-2 on the season, are coming off a 2-1 home loss that was determined in the final minutes, were shutout in their season opening loss on the road and dominated their home opener in game two.
The Mountaineers are on the heels of a 2-1 loss at home to Penn State. WVU tied the game in the 52nd minute, but an 84th minute strike by PSU sealed the victory for the visiting Nittany Lions.
WVU dominated Saint Francis, 9-0, last Sunday in its home opener, right after dropping a 2-0 decision at No. 4 Duke in the season opener.
Sophomore forward Taylor White leads the team with two goals … Five players have one goal and one assist for WVU … Nine different players have accounted for their 10 goals.
WVU commits the least amount of fouls per game (6.00) in the Big 12.
Last season, WVU won the Big 12 with an 11-5-7 (4-1-4 Big 12) mark and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, falling 4-0 to Penn State after downing Virginia Tech, 2-0, in the opening round.
West Virginia was picked to finish fourth in the Big 12 in 2023.
Fifth-year keeper Kayza Massey was named preseason All-Big 12
Head Coach Nikki Izzo-Brown enters her 28th season and is the only coach in program history … WVU has never had a losing season and has won 10 or more games in 23 straight seasons.
The Mountaineers will travel to Virginia for their next game on Thursday.
IDENTICAL SCHEDULE: The DU football team will take on the WVU gridiron squad on Sept. 9, also following a WVU vs. Penn State matchup.

THE SERIES

Duquesne is 0-10-2 all-time against the Mountaineers.
The series dates to Sept. 4 1996, just the second year of Division I soccer at DU, when the Dukes battled to a 1-1 tie at Rooney Field … The only other tie came in a 1-1 battle in Morgantown on Sept. 6, 2012.
Duquesne has not scored against WVU since 2014 (five straight scoreless meetings).
The first matchup in 1996 was the only time the match was played in Pittsburgh … This will be the 12th straight meeting at WVU.
Last season, WVU was ranked No. 12 at the time of the meeting and knocked off the Dukes, 3-0.

ALL-TIME LEADERBOARD

Graduate student forward Jaimi Araujo moved into a tie for 9th in career goals at DU with Sarah Nicholson (1995-98), with her second goal of the season last time out to bring her career total to 15 in the Red and Blue.
Araujo would move into a four-way tie for 6th place on the all-time leaderboard on her next goal (16) … Lauren Bracco ('00-03), Faye Rasmussen ('04-07), and Morgan Herbert ('09-12) are all currently tied for 6th … The all-time leader at DU is Katie O'Conner (2015-18) with 25.

ASSISTS ALL AROUND

Duquesne is tied for the early lead in the Atlantic 10 in assists with seven as a team.
Two DU scores this season have resulted from double assists.
Mackenzie Muir leads the team with two assists … Six different Dukes have at least one.

SHOTS ACCUMULATING

After being outshot 20-5 (8-2 on goal) in the season opener to Ohio, Duquesne has held the advantage in shots in each of its last two games … 18-13 with a 7-6 mark on frame on Thursday, preceded by an 18-4 (9-2 on goal) advantage in shots in the dominating home opener vs. American.

USING THE DEPTH

Duquesne has had 22 or more players see action in each of its first three games … An early season most, 28, played in the home opener vs. American (5-0 win) … 25 played in the season opener at Ohio (3-0 loss) … 22 played in Thursday's 2-1 loss to Youngstown State.

HOME-OPENING SCORING SPREE

The five goals in DU's home-opening win were the most in a game since Sept. 15, 2019 (a 6-0 win vs. Youngstown State) and the most in a home opener since 2005 (a 7-0 win over Vermont).
The home opener was the third time in the Coach Alvine era (12th season) that Duquesne has scored five or more goals in a game (6-0 win at Saint Francis on Sept. 23, 2016 and the YSU victory in 2019).

SHUTOUT VICTORY

DU tied their shutout win total from last season already after posting just one shutout victory in 2022, a 1-0 win at Richmond.
The Dukes last had multiple shutout wins in a season in the 2021 spring season with three.

BACK ON THE BLUFF

Duquesne returns all but one of their nine goal scorers from last year's squad that reached the first Atlantic 10 postseason tournament since 2019. The 2022 Dukes finished with a 6-7-3 overall and 4-3-3 conference record, bowing out of the A-10 Tournament in the first round (0-2 loss at Davidson).
Duquesne had 20 different players start at least one match last season and returns 15 of them.
Mackenzie Muir and Margey Brown were both named to the A-10 All-Rookie Team a year ago and are back for their sophomore campaigns.
Maddy Neundorfer returns for her junior season in net for DU. Neundorfer ranked second in the Atlantic 10 in saves (96) and saves per game (6.0) in 2022, starting all 16 games. The Monroeville, Pa. played all 90 minutes between the posts in the season opener on Thursday and made five saves.

NEWCOMERS RIGHT IN THE MIX

Coach Alvine brought in a talented recruiting class of 11 new players to bolster the long list of returners.
Anna Campanella, a graduate transfer that spent time at Kent State and the past three seasons at Boise State, earned a season-opening start at Ohio, alongside freshman Jaydn Sharpless, a transfer from Georgia State, are a pair of newcomers that have started every game so far this season.

SISTER, SISTER

The Dukes roster includes three sets of sisters this season. Kayla and her twin sister Skylar Leseck are freshman from Moon Township, Pa., Anna (freshman) and Emma Bundy (junior) from Wexford, Pa., and Anna (graduate student) and Ally Campanella (junior) from Hudson, Ohio.
Twins Kayla and Skylar Leseck are one of 16 twins playing Division I soccer this season … Kayla netted her first career goal late in the second half of the home-opening win over American.

WINNINGEST COACH IN PROGRAM HISTORY

Duquesne is led by 12th year head coach Al Alvine.
Alvine is the winningest coach in program history with a 76-92-25 overall record on the Bluff and 39-51-13 mark in Atlantic 10 play.
Alvine doubled the Dukes win total from 2011 in his first season. He has led DU to five A-10 Tournament appearances. In 2015, he coached the Dukes to their first-ever Atlantic 10 Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance

PRESEASON POLL

Duquesne was picked to finish seventh in the 15-team Atlantic 10 Conference, its highest preseason rank since 2018.
Defending regular season and tournament champion, St. Louis is expected to repeat grabbing 14 of the 15 first-place votes.

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