Soccer teams from the state of Washington remain impenetrable fortresses for Idaho.
Ilya Pinchuk | Argonaut Midfield/defender Erica Hart strips the ball Sunday against Washington State in the Kibbie Dome. Goals were hard to come by for the Vandals, who lost 3-0.
The Vandals only put two goals in the back of the net during four games against foes from the Evergreen state last season. In three games against Washington foes this spring, the Vandals have been blanked.
Idaho took on Washington State and Central Washington in an all-afternoon double header Sunday, dropping to WSU 3-0 and drawing scoreless with Central.
“It was a rude awakening,” Idaho coach Pete Showler said. “We can’t let teams push us around. We can’t let teams beat us to the ball and we’ve got to defend individually better. We learn a lot from these spring games.”
Attacking midfielder Jill Flockhart, who had been a focal point of Idaho’s new 4-3-3 formation and the attack in the previous spring matches, sat out Sunday’s games.
Inclement weather forced the first kick of the WSU match into the friendly confines of the Kibbie Dome, where the Cougs got to the attack early and often, netting a goal off a corner kick minutes in to game action.
Washinton State crashed the midfield throughout the match and prevented Idaho from getting into an offensive rhythm, forcing the Vandals to bring numbers back in the defensive.
“We weren’t sure what (Idaho) was going to come out in,” Washington State coach Keidane McAlpine said. “We just talked about … making them play into some areas that we wanted to make them play into. It actually was pretty effective today.”
Washington State’s Jocelyn Jeffers all but put the game away in the second half when she sliced through a wide-open Idaho defense and shot a rocket outside
the 18-yard box that grazed the crossbar and went in.
The Vandals made marginal pushes forward but never found sustainable goal scoring opportunities.
“Once we got the ball it was harder to find passes. Because there was a girl on every single player,” midfielder Katie Baran said. “We needed to find space and it was harder because the outside mids weren’t getting wide.”
The hope is that the experience against a team as good defensively as Washington State will work out the kinks against Idaho’s other opposition.
“Because the team that we are playing against is relatively good, I feel like it forced us to play defensively a lot,” midfielder Megan Lopez said. “It will prepare us for those teams we’ll be able to utilize our offense against more.”
Jeffers put the final nail in the coffin, scoring off a corner to give Washington State the 3-0 lead.
The Vandal offense stagnated against Central Washington. Hail flurries and high wind affected the scoreless draw on the SprinTurf.
Despite 270 minutes of scoreless offense in the last three matches, Showler isn’t worried.
“We’re trying different things,” he said. “I’m not concerned about that many minutes without a goal by any means. Mixing 20 players together — it just brings different things.”
The Vandals take a weekend off of competition before they travel to Couer D’Alene to take on North Idaho College.
Sean Kramer can be reached at [email protected]