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It has been a year of rewriting the history books in 2021, and the West Virginia University men's soccer team has no plans to stop.
"(We) probably haven't allowed it to settle in or to sink in in terms of what we've achieved up to this point because we don't feel like we're done," head coach Dan Stratford said Wednesday. "We still feel like there's so much more to accomplish."
Last Saturday's win over No. 6 Tulsa propelled No. 11 WVU into the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1981, a feat that Stratford and his assistant coaches, who all suited up for the Mountaineers in the 2000s, were never able to accomplish.
"(Associate head coach) Andy (Wright) had a joke with them that they've now surpassed anything that we achieved here as players. We were a little disgruntled but, no, it's incredible," Stratford said with a smile postgame on Nov. 27. "We feel like we have a team this year that is human enough to have some games that haven't quite gone our way that we expected to, but good enough to compete with […] other mainstay names that have permanent features in the top 10, top 25 in the country."
Taking into consideration the amount of roster turnover that came with the January 2020 coaching change, an intriguing bunch of athletes have pushed this year's Mountaineers to become one of the best squads in program history.
Currently, four of the team's six leaders in minutes played are in their first or second year with the program, including defender Frederik Jorgensen, who leads all freshmen in playing time. Jorgensen, as well as sophomore Ciro Bourlot Jaeggi, rank among the team's top three goal scorers, but youth isn't the lone identity of the team. Rather, the team's inexperience is supplemented by the experience that comes with a stout veteran presence.
Senior Yoran Popovic, junior Luke McCormick and fifth-year Pau Jimenez Albelda each rank among the team's best in points, while fifth-year goalkeeper Steven Tekesky leads the Mid-American Conference in goals against average.
The roster's makeup has been a winning combination for Stratford and company, but whether the success will be able to persist in the team's next matchup is the true question. The Mountaineers will compete for a spot in the Final Four this Saturday against No. 3 Georgetown (Noon, ESPN+), facing a program that was crowned national champion in 2019.
Tekesky and the Mountaineers, who possess the nation's fourth-best defense based on team goals against average, will meet a similar match in the Hoyas, who possess the nation's seventh-best defense based on the same stat.
There's no question that West Virginia faces a major speedbump on the road to becoming a national champion this weekend. But the team's track record -- which includes only one loss in five matches against ranked opponents -- instills the belief in the Mountaineers that they truly belong in the conversation of the NCAA's best.
"We can play with anyone in the country, we really truly do believe that, and we've shown that again," said Stratford, who won two Division II national titles in three seasons at the University of Charleston before coming to Morgantown. "To come here against the quality of attacking players that they have and keep a clean sheet is saying something about the quality of what we have at our disposal."