Mountain Momma Monday: January 28

This past week was a rough one for Mountaineers womens athletics. While all of the teams fought vigorously in their competitions, only the tennis team was able to come away with victory this past weekend. Let’s take a look back at a rough week for the WVU women.

Basketball:

Jan 19, 2013; Waco, TX, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers guard Taylor Palmer (2) during the game against the Baylor Bears in the first half at the Ferrell Center. Baylor won 76-58. Mandatory Credit: Jim Cowsert-USA TODAY Sports

Mike Carey’s team had a rough week, dropping both Big XII conference home games against a pair of tough opponents.

In last Tuesday’s game against Texas Tech, the Mountaineers suffered a hard fought loss that took overtime to decide. West Virginia battled hard against the Lady Raiders, 77-73 in OT. WVU took a 38-29 lead into halftime and loooked to take control of the game after that.

Texas Tech came out of halftime on a 14-3 run, highlighted by various dribble drive penetrations that would be the Mountaineers downfall in the second half. The Lady Raiders took advantage of the Mountaineers inability to guard the lane, rallying to the road victory.

WVU was led in scoring by Averee Fields (17) and Christal Caldwell (16).

Fresh off the loss to Texas Tech, the Mountaineers prepared for a home date this past Saturday against #24 Iowa State. The Mountaineers knew that they would be in for quite the challenge against the Cyclones. WVU did not expect, however, to drop a second consecutive game to a Big XII opponent after holding a halftime lead.

The Mountaineers took a 34-25 lead into halftime against ISU. In the second half, the Mountaineers struggled greatly from the field in the second half, only sinking 6 shots from the field. To make matters worse, the Cyclones crushed the Mountaineers on the glass, 35-22. The Mountaineers inability to come down with rebounds cost them dearly in a close 53-49 loss.

WVU will face an even tougher test this coming week, with a road game at #19 Oklahoma State (Jan 29 at 8 PM) and a home game against #21 Oklahoma (Feb 3 at 1 PM).

Gymnastics:

WVU hit the road for a contest at #24 North Carolina State this past Friday. The Mountaineers lost an incredibly close meet by a final tally of 195.2-195.15. The Mountaineers rebounded from a poor showing in the Utah quad meet for have a far better outing against NC State.

The meet featured season highs for the Mountaineers in both bars and beam competitions. Even with those strong performances, the Mountaineers fell just shy of the tight victory over the Wolfpack.

The Mountaineers (2-3) will host a quad meet with Oklahoma, Western Michigan, and William & Mary this coming Friday, February 1 at 7 PM.

Swimming:

The swim team took a regular season ending loss to Ohio, 165-135, despite a record-setting performance by senior Rahael Burnett.

Burnett took down one more West Virginia record, setting the school record for the 1650-m free with a time of 16:59.32. She also took first place in both the 100-m free and 500-m free, leading the way for the Mountaineers in the swim meet.

Other first place finsisher for the Mountaineers were Haily VandePoel in the 3-m board and the team of Eva Burlingham, Julie Ogden, Jaimee Gillmore, and Rachael Burnett in the 200-m relay.

Unfortunately for the Mountaineers, they were unable to capture more first place finishes to take down the Ohio Bobcats. The loss to Ohio, ends the Mountaineers regular season and will be their final competition prior to the Big XII Championships. WVU will compete in the Big XII Championships February 27-28 and March 1-2.

Tennis:

The Mountaineers took on the Thundering Herd in the tennis version of the Friends of Coal Bowl, taking on Marshall this past Saturday at home.

Unlike in football, where the Mountaineers have owned Marshall since the dawn of time, WVU has been on a 10 match losing streak to Marshall, dating back to 1998. WVU pulled out a narrow 4-3 victory of the Thundering Herd behind strong performances by Hailey Barrett and Ikttesh Chahal. The Mountaineers also got a big lift from the doubles team of Emily Mathis and Audrey Wooland. Mathis also scored a victory in singles competition, giving the Mountaineers the edge they needed to end the drought against Marshall.

West Virginia will hit the road this weekend with a pair of road contests against Syracuse and Buffalo, February 2-3.

Track:

The track team completed their competition at Penn State this past weekend with a modest outing, only taking home one first place finish. The lone victory for the Mountaineers came from freshman Kelly Williams in the 800-m run. WVU did get a record-setting weight throw by Heather Adams with a mark of 18.04-m. Unfortunately for Adams and the Mountaineers, her record throw was only good enough for 4th place.

WVU will get back on the track this coming weekend with a meet at Akron February 1-2.