As the clock ticked in the final minutes of Sunday’s soccer match between Northern Colorado and Idaho, the Vandals nervously held their breath in anticipation, glancing up at the scoreboard.
As the sound of the concluding whistle rang across the field, the team jumped up and down in celebration and mobbed one another in excitement.
Idaho (13-4-1 overall, 9-0 Big Sky Conference) clinched the Big Sky regular-season championship.
“Our team has always been focused on our performance, and today’s celebration is just a sum of a lot of effort by all of our players and staff,” said Idaho coach Derek Pittman. “We are incredibly excited to have won the Big Sky regular-season championship.”
The Vandals began weekend play on Friday against North Dakota (4-11-2, 2-6-1), hoping to gain three vital points in the conference standings before Sunday’s game against Northern Colorado, who is now tied with Eastern Washington for second place in the conference.
“We knew that we would have a tough road trip beginning in Grand Forks, and that it was important to remain focused on North Dakota before we even thought about Sunday’s game,” Pittman said.
The Vandals opened up their offensive attack with a goal in the 12th minute from junior midfielder Alyssa Lloyd, who finished a corner kick from junior midfielder Clara Gomez to put the Vandals on the scoreboard.
The flurry of goals for the Vandals didn’t come until the second half when the team took advantage of three separate scoring opportunities to derail North Dakota’s chance at a postseason berth.
Junior forward Kavita Battan scored in the 54th minute to extend Idaho’s lead to 2-0, and just 12 minutes later, sophomore forward Olivia Baggerly connected off a corner to score Idaho’s third goal of the game.
The final goal for the Vandals came in the 79th minute when redshirt freshman forward Kaitlyn Joy took the ball the length of the field and found the back of the net to seal the win for Idaho.
“We challenged the players to be more aggressive physically in the second half and more hungry in front of the goal,” Pittman said. “I feel we did a much better job matching North Dakota’s intensity, and our execution on set plays were key to our second-half performance.”
Following their victory at North Dakota, the Vandals traveled to Greeley, Colorado, to face Northern Colorado (11-7-1, 6-2-1) in a matchup that would decide the Big Sky Conference regular-season title.
“Northern Colorado is a really good team,” Pittman said. “They play good soccer and they have some really great players. We knew we would need to play our best to win.”
The Vandals’ offense made an immediate impact in the opening minutes of Sunday’s match. Gomez secured a deflected ball and her shot found the net to put Idaho up 1-0 in the sixth minute of the game.
In the next 77 minutes of game action, the two teams traded shots back and forth, as freshman goalkeeper Amanda Poertner and the Vandal defense denied any scoring opportunities for the Bears.
Idaho finally got some breathing room in the 83rd minute when Lloyd headed a corner past Northern Colorado’s goalkeeper to raise the score to 2-0.
Following Lloyd’s goal, the team anxiously watched the scoreboard clock for the remaining seven minutes until the game’s final whistle sounded.
“I’m really proud of our team for their focus, effort and perseverance,” Pittman said. “For us to come out with the Big Sky regular-season championship is awesome.”
With Sunday’s victory, the Vandals clinched the top seed and the right to host the Big Sky Tournament next month.
“It’s going to feel very nice to play in front of our home fans for the next two weeks,” Pittman said. “We’ll do everything we can to protect our home field in the tournament.”
The Vandals have one last home game on their schedule before the postseason tournament. Idaho will face Eastern Washington at 3 p.m. Friday at Guy Wicks Field.
The Vandals will then host the Big Sky Tournament at Guy Wicks Field Nov. 5-8.
Josh Grissom can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @GoshJrissom