After a crushing loss Sunday to the University of South Dakota, the Idaho Vandals looked to bounce back from adversity and return to the win column on Thursday. Just 10 minutes into their 1-0 victory over the University of Texas, El Paso Miners, Idaho had their response.
“Unfortunately, losses do happen, and you have to take them. You have to learn from them,” redshirt sophomore Calli Chiarelli said. “We watched some film on the South Dakota game, and we did get ripped into and we needed to learn from that and move on. We took the things that we learned from the film and applied them to practice this week. Practices have looked good, very clean, and we were able to stay focused and ready for this game.”
Chiarelli and the Vandals came out of the gates ready to respond. After drawing a foul, Idaho was ready to make some magic happen.
In the 10th minute, sophomore defender Bella Gissendanner stood over the ball as the referee blew the whistle. She approached the ball and delivered a perfectly placed cross into the six-yard box.
Junior forward Georgia Whitehead rose above her defender and headed it toward the goal. Like her near miss on Sunday, the ball pinged off the crossbar but this time it fell to the right player.
With the ball in the air, Chiarelli waited patiently to time her run perfectly. As the ball came down, Chiarelli used her quick reflexes and instincts to head home the rebound for her second goal in three games, putting the Vandals in the lead.
“For as long as I can remember, I’ve been yelled at to get the rebounds and always crash the net,” Chiarelli said. “I saw that ball bounce off the crossbar, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘I better put this in the back of the net right now.’ And sure enough, it just went right through the keeper’s hands. It was a good header, and it found the back of the net. I was like, ‘Let’s go, I scored again!'”
After the goal, the Vandals settled in and started to dominate the game with crisp passing and swarming pressure on the ball. The teams went into the locker room with Idaho leading 1-0.
The Miners came out of the second half ready to show what they were made of and had their best chance to equalize in the 69th minute.
The Vandals, looking for their second goal, turned the ball over, and the Miners executed a flawless counterattack. The ball eventually fell to junior midfielder Dannique Wilson, who used her speed to race past the Vandals’ back line.
Wilson took the shot with just one obstacle standing between her and the equalizer: redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Paula Flores. Flores stood tall, made herself big, and used her training and elite positioning to make the save and clear the danger for the Vandals.
Flores has had to step into a much larger leadership role with her entire starting back line departing and the team switching from a back four to a back three formation. It’s been a process, but one that has paid dividends as Flores and the team have recorded four shutouts in their first seven games.
“It’s very much about leadership and listening to what Jeremy [Clevenger] wants out of them, directing them whether it’s a shift or a step,” Flores said. “I gained that leadership role in the back line. I was used to the sixth years or fifth years talking for me, so I gained more of a voice this year.”
The backline and Flores continued to be tested but remained unfazed, finishing their homestand with a much-needed win heading into a week off.
“It was a big response,” head coach Jeremy Clevenger said. “We were very organized, and we made it hard for them to break us down. Secondly, we were more efficient in the final third. I thought, even though we only had one goal, we created a lot of good opportunities, and that’s what we wanted.”
Clevenger and the team value the upcoming week off, seeing it as crucial time to improve and recover as they enter the final stages of non-conference play.
“We need it,” Clevenger said. “We haven’t had a week off or a week to train in almost a month. We need to recover a little bit, but we also need to be able to work on the little things. Right now, in practice, we’re only able to touch on things briefly, so we’re going to be able to spend more time, and hopefully that’ll be good time for us to get better.”
Along with the week off, their next two games will be on the road, giving this tight-knit Vandal team another chance to bond and develop even stronger chemistry.
“I personally love this team. We have such a great culture in the locker room, even after practice and before practice, like we’re dancing, we’re laughing, we’re making jokes with each other,” Chiarelli said. “I like traveling with the team because everyone enjoys each other. Everyone’s in each other’s hotel rooms, and we’re just hanging out, and we’re helping each other with homework, recovery and treatment, and people bring card games. It’s really awesome that the team is able to be together in tiny spaces for as long as we can.”
The Vandals will travel to Grand Canyon University to take on the Lopes on Thursday, Sept. 11, at 7 p.m.
Jayden Barfuss can be reached at [email protected].