Through the first four matches of the season, the Idaho Vandals soccer team showed glimpses of the skill, leadership and determination the senior-laden side possesses. Then the four-match losing skid hit.
This weekend won’t get much easier for the Vandals (2-6), as they face Eastern Washington on the road and local-rival Washington State at home.
Scoring only twice and allowing 14 goals in the last four matches, Idaho coach Pete Showler said the team’s key to rebounding over the weekend will be the team finding its identity.
“We know these teams will make things difficult, they’ll work and grind hard and nothing will come easy,” Showler said. “We’ve got to go play our brand of soccer and get the identity of our team back and show them what it is.”
The first match of the weekend will take place at 4 p.m. Friday in Cheney as the Vandals travel north to face the Eastern Washington Eagles (1-4-1), who are coming off their first win of the season, a 3-1 victory over Boise State last weekend.
Like Idaho, the Eagles have struggled to put goals on the board, netting only six in their six matches, compared to the Vandals’ eight in eight matches.
Both sides also have gaps in their defense, allowing over two goals per match, a number Idaho goalkeeper Liz Boyden said needs to go down immediately.
“Well it’s been difficult, because I don’t think I’ve ever been scored on this many times. It’s kind of a mental struggle in itself,” Boyden said. “It’s not our team either, we shouldn’t be allowing this many goals. We’ve been having too many breakdowns, but if we fix those breakdowns we can compete with these top level teams.”
The second match of the weekend marks the first Idaho home match in three weeks, and it couldn’t come against a more fierce rival as the WSU Cougars make the eight-mile trek from Pullman to Moscow at noon Sunday.
This is the second consecutive year that the Cougars will face Idaho at Guy Wicks Field, with the visitors winning last season’s contest 2-1 in a thrilling overtime match.
This is the fourth match against the Cougars for senior forward Jill Flockhart, who said the team wants a win this game more than any of the others so far this season.
“It would be huge. A win against Eastern would be huge too, but a win over Wazzu is always personal,” Flockhart said. “They’re just down the road, and we’ve never beaten them in the fall since I’ve been here. A win like this would also help us out of this slump we’ve been in.”
Showler said success will be tough against a WSU team (4-1) that is coming off a 3-2 home victory over Wyoming. The Cougars will come in with a potent attack that has netted 14 goals in five matches this season, while their defense has only conceded seven.
“A win against WSU would be huge. It sets a good tone, and anytime you beat a Pac-12 team, you know they’re challenging the SEC and other big programs in terms of successes,” Showler said. “We just want to get a win like that and get back on track and show everyone what we’re capable of.”
Madison McCord can be reached at [email protected]