Coming off a 2-0 loss to kick off the spring season, the Idaho soccer team went into practice this week preparing for their next opponent — who just happens to be coach Derek Pittman’s former team, Gonzaga.
Pittman has taken many aspects of the Gonzaga style — including the high-octane offensive attack and swarming defense — that helped build the Bulldogs into a force in the West Coast Conference.
“I’m not expecting us to be exactly like Gonzaga but there are pieces of what we did that we are strongly going to benefit from here,” Pittman said.
The challenge they pose to the Vandals on Saturday will be a great measure of where the team stands as it heads toward the fall season, he said.
Sophomore midfielder Elexis Schlossarek said the team is proud of the progress they have made so far under Pittman and want to prove that on Saturday against his former team.
However, Pittman is more concerned about the teams they will be competing with next season in the Big Sky Conference — including longtime rivals Montana and Idaho State. The Vandals will return to the Big Sky this fall after an 18-year absence — before the soccer program even existed.
But before the Vandals can do that, they will need to work on some of the things that hindered the team last week against Washington State.
Pittman said there are definitely plenty of things they can continue to work on, including some old habits that are dying hard. He said that is expected but the team has been more than willing to do what they can to break some of the long-standing bad habits.
Schlossarek said pressing over the middle is something that needs work in preparation for Gonzaga. Too many times the WSU offense was able to slip past the Idaho defense, she said.
The first step in improving is finding the mistakes on film and working to fix them, Pittman said.
“We are working really hard at fixing the little things that went wrong against WSU,” sophomore forward Alyssa Pease said.
The Vandals will also face Central Washington on Saturday.
Pittman hopes that double headers during the spring will get the young Vandal squad plenty of game-time minutes, which remains the main focus of the spring campaign.
During last week’s games, the Vandals implemented the formula of finding what goes wrong in the first game and working on it in the second game. Both Schlossarek and Pease said that worked well and the team plans to continue to do it moving forward.
Both opponents are expected to bring different styles to their games. Gonzaga is expected to come at Idaho fast and they will need to be prepared to handle the athletic onslaught, whereas CWU may give the Vandals an opportunity to impose their athleticism on them, Pittman said.
Joshua Gamez can be reached at [email protected]