With unprecedented success come expectations to match.
So when the Idaho soccer program finished third in the WAC Championship tournament last season it was safe to assume success of similar proportions in 2011, considering the minimal roster turnover.
The pre-conference schedule for Idaho was everything but successful. The team lost four of its 12 pre-conference matches, and then proceeded to drop its first two in WAC play during an offensively challenging weekend in California.
Injuries, inexplicable offensive droughts, plain and simple inconsistency — things weren’t coming together for the Vandals.
“We reached a point where our team said ‘We are too good of a team not to be winning,'” junior Megan Lopez said. “We said we couldn’t always rely on luck. We have to take advantage of our own opportunities.”
Idaho accomplished its mission in a home match against Hawaii and put to rest talk of being “unlucky” with four different players taking part in a scoring outburst, downing the Vandals 4-2.
“Before the game we all talked about how important this game was, about how important conference was,” Lopez said. “It really helped drive the team in needing to win. It wasn’t just a choice to win — we needed to.”
The first conference victory of the season for the Vandals gets the team back on track toward its original goal — a conference championship.
“It hasn’t changed, it hasn’t wavered,” coach Pete Showler said. “Our goal is to win the WAC and represent the WAC in the NCAA (tournament) and that’s a goal we hold firmly.”
Somehow, one conference victory may seem to erase Idaho’s string of struggles early in the season. But players and coaches reiterate that they played a difficult schedule that was simply a culmination for an approach into conference play.
“We weren’t quite as focused on our pre-season as much as we were in getting prepared for WAC,” junior Lauren Layton said. “Our focus this year is definitely centered towards WAC.”
Despite what could be considered a detrimental record, Lopez believes that a difficult pre-season schedule only made Idaho better.
“It was really good for us, it taught us a lot about rising up when we’re down,” she said. “Against Fresno State and San Jose State we played phenomenal and that had to do with the pre-season games.”
She believes that despite losing the first two conference games that the team was good enough to pull off a victory.
“We were able to compete with these tougher teams that were favored in our conference, we just couldn’t take advantage of our opportunities.”
Six of the top eight teams in the WAC qualify for the conference tournament to be held in Fresno in early November. The road back to the WAC championships shifts to the southwest as a difficult road trip to New Mexico State and La. Tech await the Vandals. Favorable results will be crucial if the Vandals hope to keep pace in conference.
“Our goal still is to compete in conference, make it to the tournament final and win it,” Lopez said. “It’s very attainable.”