Wins, or even goals for that matter, have been hard to come by for Derek Pittman and the Idaho soccer team.
But the raw results are not necessarily indicative of the team’s performance thus far on the young season. With teams like Gonzaga, Boise State and TCU all on the nonconference schedule, the team will be battle tested once Big Sky play opens, Idaho coach Derek Pittman said.
Jackson Flynn | Argonaut
Junior April Russell blocks a kick during a practice on Wednesday evening.
The next nonconference game is Friday at Moraga, California, to play St. Mary’s.
“We are going to give them a lot of looks and give them a good idea of what St. Mary’s is going to try to do, but again our focus is on us,” Pittman said. “We need to continue improving and if we do the things that we are good at we will have success.”
Pittman said although his players have yet to put together a full game, they are getting better and are remaining positive and competitive going into their next match.
“I like how we are playing harder competition,” sophomore midfielder Elexis Schlos- sarek said. “We haven’t gotten a win yet, but we are learning and progressing.”
Despite taking the head coaching job in early February, Pittman was still able to have a say in a few of the non-conference games. Boise State, Grand Canyon, Arizona and Illinois State were all among the games that he scheduled.
“I knew it was going to be difficult,” Pittman said of the nonconfer- ence schedule. “I wanted to test our players early. I didn’t want to put a bunch of soft games in there to over-inflate our confidence. We need to make sure that we are prepared to play against the best.”
Now with five games behind them, the Vandals are getting their footing both from a game plan and preparation standpoint, which should only help the team as it prepares for its Big Sky opener on Sept. 26, Pittman said. There is nothing that will change as far as the team’s preparations, he said.
Once the conference schedule opens up, the team won’t change its mentality at all, but knowing there is an end goal is something many of the players are looking forward to, Schlossarek said.
“As soon as conference play starts we are going to be going at them, being relentless and not letting up and we are going to show them the mentality we really have,” she said. That is going to threaten a lot of the Big Sky schools that don’t know us.”
Although the Vandals are a young team, Pittman is not going to let that be a crutch for his team.
“We expect to go out each and every game and put our best foot forward,” he said. “When we do that we know that we will put ourselves in the best position to win games no matter who we line up against. I don’t look at those players as anything but soccer players.”
Jackson Flynn | Argonaut
Freshman Chloe Bell warms up before a scrimmage Wednesday evening.
Before the Vandals open up their Big Sky schedule, they have four more non-conference games left on the schedule, including their match on Friday in Cali- fornia. As the team continues to prepare for St. Mary’s and Washington State this weekend, Schlossaresk is confident in what the team has been doing in practice this week and is excited to get back out on the field.
“These past couple of practices have been really good, I think we are going to have a real good showing this weekend, which I am really excited about and I know the team is really rearing to go knowing that conference is in two weeks,” Schlossaresk said. “Preseason is great but I definitely want to get into conference and start going.”
Joshua Gamez can be reached at [email protected]