When the Idaho soccer team began its season in August, those familiar with how last season went probably didn’t expect the Vandals to clinch the Big Sky Conference regular season championship.
But after three months of play, the Vandals earned the regular season title and are hosting the Big Sky Tournament at Guy Wicks Field.
The tournament started Thursday but the Vandals received a first-round bye and will play Montana at 1 p.m. Friday in the semifinals.
“Our goal was always to get to the conference tournament and we knew once we got there that anything could happen,” Idaho coach Derek Pittman said. “Now that we are in the tournament and have the No. 1 seed, it becomes even more real and exciting for our players.”
The Vandals (13-4-2 overall, 9-0-1 Big Sky) did not lose a single conference game in the regular season.
The other teams in the tournament include No. 2 Northern Colorado, No. 5 Montana and No. 6 Sacramento State. No. 3 Eastern Washington and No. 4 Weber were eliminated Thursday.
“There will be some interesting matchups with some very contrasting styles in this tournament,” Pittman said. “The beauty of the Big Sky is that anybody can beat anybody on any given day, and we know that.”
Although the Vandals possess the top seed, the team’s road through the tournament is a difficult one.
Montana held the Vandals scoreless in the first half of the matchup between the two programs earlier in the season, before the Vandals eventually overwhelmed the Grizzlies with a scoring attack late in the second half. Idaho won 3-1.
Pittman said the Vandals should be wary of Montana and its recent success on the pitch. The Grizzlies ended the season on a hot streak to claim the fifth seed in the tournament and beat Weber State 2-0 Thursday in a quarterfinal match.
If the Vandals win their semifinal match Friday, the team will enter the championship game Sunday afternoon with the opportunity to claim an automatic invitation to the NCAA College Cup.
The winner of the Big Sky Tournament will enter the 64-team NCAA tournament and begin the first round of single-elimination play next weekend.
The final four teams in the NCAA College Cup will travel to Cary, North Carolina, to compete for the NCAA Division I Championship Dec. 4-6.
Josh Grissom can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @GoshJrissom