With the baseball team having officially missed out on the NCAA Tournament and the track team, it seems, not sending any runners to the NCAA National Meet, it’s time to put a cap on the 2005-2006 athletic season for the West Virginia Mountaineers.
From Sugar Bowl wins to NCAA Tournament berths, this year truly was one of the greatest in Mountaineer history, so the task of picking out one great moment from each team is a daunting one, but one that’s worth shouldering.
Football- Beating Woffo….just kidding. Defeating Georgia 38-35 to win the program’s first-ever Sugar Bowl.
A great moment in sports is one that has a signature moment or moments--the Sugar Bowl fits this perfectly. Super Steve Slaton’s two 52-yard sprints to paydirt. Darius Reynaud’s two touchdowns. The shocked Georgia fans. And, of course, Phil Brady’s perfectly executed fake punt to seal the deal in the fourth quarter.
The win erased two huge stereotypes: that the Mountaineers couldn’t win a big bowl game, and, by extension, that the Big East Conference didn’t deserve its automatic Bowl Championship Series berth. It was the first bowl win for Rich Rodriguez, and he does it with a true freshman in Slaton and a red-shirt freshman in Pat White leading the way offensively.
Here’s an amazing stat: the last time before 2005 that the Mountaineers were undefeated away from Morgantown? 1954. No wonder Sam Huff felt so at home on Thanksgiving when his number was retired; he and this team were kindred spirits. Men’s Soccer- Advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1981.
Coach Mike Seabolt’s rebuilding job is starting to look like the Golden Gate Bridge.
The Mountaineer men advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for only the second time in program history, dispatching Robert Morris 1-0 in the first round before falling to Akron, ranked #1 in the country for a good portion of the season, in round two.
Only two years before, in Seabolt’s first season at the helm, WVU won five games, only one of which came in Big East play. Women’s Soccer- A sixth straight trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Starting a young lineup that was bolstered by a top-ten recruiting class, Coach Nikki Izzo-Brown had the Mountaineers in the hunt for the College Cup for the sixth consecutive campaign.
WVU fell to eventual Final Four participant Penn State in the second round after defeating Hofstra in the first round, and also advanced to the Big East semifinals for the fifth time in six years.
Also, goalkeeper Lana Bannerman set the school record for shutouts with a year to spare, and senior Marisa Kanela was selected first team All-Big East. Volleyball- A 9-1 start to September
The Mountaineer volleyball team got into a groove early in September, winning nine of ten matches in the span of 15 days, winning both the Akron Early Bird Invitational and the WVU Classic in the process.
Senior Kelly Mullins led the way, earning Most Valuable Player Honors in both tournaments. Women’s Cross Country- Susan Davis finishes 74th at NCAA Nationals.
Susan Davis’s amazing career in a Gold and Blue cross-country uniform culminated in Terre Haute, Indiana when the Romney, West Virginia native finished 74th out of 253 runners with a time of 20:54 in the six-kilometer race.
It was Davis’ second trip to the national race, as she qualified in 2004. The Mountaineers will have big shoes to fill with her graduation.
The best of a Gold and Blue Winter on the way tomorrow!
West Virginia 