KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The West Virginia State University women's soccer team cracked the United Soccer Coaches (USC) Top 25 National Poll when the USC voting committee announced the rankings on Tuesday afternoon. The release of the sixth poll of the season marked the first time in program history that West Virginia State is nationally-ranked.

The Yellow Jackets remained undefeated on the year with wins over West Liberty, 1-0, and Alderson Broaddus, 3-1, last week to improve to 11-0-1 overall and 9-0-1 in the Mountain East Conference. They have outscored their opponents by a combined score of 41-11 through 12 matches with no defeats and one draw against Concord, 1-1, on Sept. 25th.

WVSU became the lone representative of the MEC in the USC Top 25 at No. 20 this week after Frostburg State dropped out from No. 17 after losing to Concord, 3-1, and drawing with Wheeling, 2-2. The Yellow Jackets also jumped the Bobcats in the USC Atlantic Region rankings by moving into the No. 2 spot behind only West Chester (11-0-0) out of the PSAC.

Another historic occasion for the women's soccer program occurred this week when the NCAA officially updated statistics. West Virginia State's Fran Soares-Cupertino overtook Colorado Mesa's Lila Dere by scoring two more goals than her last week to become the NCAA Division II leader in goals with 16 thus far. Never before has WVSU possessed the nation's leading goal scorer.

The Yellow Jackets will travel to Notre Dame College (4-4-3, 3-3-3 MEC) on Wednesday afternoon before hosting Davis & Elkins (6-4-1, 5-4-1 MEC) on Saturday night for the upcoming week. They have not faced the Falcons yet this season, but defeated the Senators, 9-3, when they last met on Sept. 15th.