It’s been a rollercoaster spring for Idaho soccer. Seven goals sandwiched between 270 minutes of being shutout highlight Idaho’s scoring odyssey during the last five weeks.
Consider last weekend a breath of fresh air.
The team spent Saturday in Spokane competing in Gonzaga’s third annual 7 vs. 7 tournament.
Players and coaches agreed that the ordinary yet fun tournament was a fitting end to the spring.
“It was nice,” coach Pete Shower said. “Every game we got stronger. It took a while for the girls to get settled in, but we were excited.”
Idaho split its squad into two competing teams, with position players being drawn at random and split between the teams — Caroline Towles and Liz Boyden goal kept for the respective teams.
Idaho sent one team to the semi-finals where Gonzaga came away with the victory in a penalty shootout. The other Idaho team finished seventh.
Montana won the tournament on penalty kicks against Gonzaga.
The tournament turned out to be a high-scoring affair, with teams averaging five to seven goals a match. The offsides rule wasn’t called and the dimensions of the field were significantly reduced for the tournament.
Nearly every Vandal scored, with players switching positions and having fun with the tournament trying to get everybody on the score sheet. Defenders played at forward, forwards played defense and even keepers took shots on goal.
Megan Lopez, Chelsea Small and Katie Baran were among the leading scorers.
Last season the Vandals competed in the finals after an all-Idaho semi-final.
The tournament caps a spring of experimentation and experience for the Vandals, who return every starter from last season’s team that made a run to the WAC tournament semi-finals.
“(You can see) the difference they brought in to every game,” Showler said. “It’s a complete different system but they’ve adapted well. No matter what happens with results we finished spring stronger than we started.”
Showler said the new 4-3-3 formation the team played with during the spring will be by no means a lock to stick when they hit the pitch in the fall, but that it helps to be versatile.
“It’s worked well. We like to be adaptable, with the different teams we will play in the fall it gives us a lot of options,” he said.
The WAC will welcome Seattle, Denver and Texas State next season and Idaho will play power six conference teams like Texas Tech and Washington State.
The spring season’s conclusion means Idaho will hit the pitch for fall practice in August.
Sean Kramer can be reached at [email protected]