The record after the first two matches of the season for Idaho soccer may be expected, but the way they played is anything but.
Steven Devine | Argonaut
Senior Megan Lopez fights for ball control during Sunday’s game against South Dakota. The team will face Gonzaga 4 p.m. Friday at Guy Wicks Field.
The predictable part is that the Vandals opened the 2012 campaign with a 2-1 loss to Texas Tech and a 1-0 overtime home victory against South Dakota. However, the Vandals played considerably better in the losing effort to Tech than the victory against the Coyotes.
Idaho suffered a tough result in Lubbock after the Red Raiders took the lead on an 83rd minute strike from Paige Strahan. The Vandals had equalized four minutes earlier.
Texas Tech was the superior attacking and possessing team, but Idaho played well defensively and was able to produce good attacking opportunities the few times the ball was in front of the Red Raider net.
The result against South Dakota was much more favorable, but the quality of play wasn’t.
“We’ll take it, but we didn’t deserve it,” coach Pete Showler said. “That’s probably the poorest performance since I’ve been here. We’ll take it, it was scrappy, but there’s a lot to move on from there.”
Idaho put nine shots on goal against South Dakota, and still needed the second half of overtime to end it on a golden goal.
“We’ve got to finish chances, we tried to pass the ball into the net,” Shower said.
Expectations are high considering how senior-laden the team is, and players agreed with Showler’s assessment that this performance didn’t stack up.
“Honestly we just were out of our element today,” defender Mary Condon said. “This has been one of the better years I’ve seen in double days but it didn’t really show today.”
The brightest spot of the weekend for the Vandals may have been goalkeeper Liz Boyden. The senior saw her first real game action since breaking her leg last August against Seattle.
“I honestly feel like I’ve left off where I started last year, which is great. I was expecting to kind of have to work in to it but the past couple of games I’ve felt confident,” she said.
Boyden accumulated 13 saves in the two matches, five of them against South Dakota to preserve the clean sheet.
The Vandals will hit the pitch again this Friday, hosting the Gonzaga Bulldogs. Gonzaga defeated Idaho 3-0 in Spokane last season.
“We just need to come out and play like we know how to play. Get after them quickly,” Condon said.
Sean Kramer can be reached at [email protected]