Mother Nature played for Idaho at Sunday’s regular season opener at Guy Wicks Field. The wind helped the Vandals to a 3-1 win over Grand Canyon, its second win at home this fall.
Junior forward Olivia Baggerly scored the first goal in the 22nd minute. Senior forward Kavita Battan was fouled, giving senior midfielder Elexis Schlossarek a free kick. Schlossarek’s kick gave Baggerly a low ball that slid into the net.
“I’ve been waiting on that one for a little bit,” Baggerly said. “It feels good to get that off my chest and off my shoulders a bit. First one down and expect a lot more.”
Baggerly was glad to see a goal early in the game.
“It’s nice for us,” she said. “We like to score early because it’s harder to come back than stay up. We responded really well when we got scored on and I think we did a great job today running through the obstacles we couldn’t control.”
The Lopes leveled with Idaho seven minutes later after a corner kick. Junior defender Madison Cox guided the ball into the net.
“We made the one mistake on the goal we gave up,” Idaho head coach Derek Pittman said. “We’ll fix that for next week for sure.”
The Vandals outshot Grand Canyon 17-6.
Pittman was pleased with his team’s work despite playing into the wind.
“It was difficult against the wind,” he said. “We had to make a few adjustments, play a little higher up the field because the wind was going to be in our favor, not to sit back as much. I’m still happy with the first half for us to outshoot them.”
Sophomore midfielder Megan Goo gave Idaho the game with a goal in the 74th minute.
Goo followed up on a deflection from Lopes junior goalkeeper Blakely Fraasch and scored.
Junior defender Josilyn Daggs gave Idaho a solid lead in the 79th minute with her first career goal. Daggs threw the ball to freshman midfielder Sophia French, who passed on to freshman forward Alex Chambers. The ball was returned to Daggs, whose kick was guided by the wind over Fraasch and into the net.
Daggs said she was more nervous for pregame, when she sang the national anthem.
“I think I was super nervous,” she said. “But once that was done, I was focused on the game. My nerves were gone after that.”
Sunday’s win also marks a record-breaking number of attendees – 679.
The win comes days after Idaho dropped their season opener against South Dakota in Vermillion.
“Overall, I thought we defended very well,” Pittman said in a press release. “We limited them to only five shots. Some of the opportunities were off of mistakes we made, but I thought our defending was very good. We need to be better in the front half. Be a little quicker, a little more aggressive.”
Idaho outshot South Dakota 14-5.
In the 86th minute, the Coyotes sent the ball toward the box. It bounced and fell at the feet of South Dakota’s Corey Strang. Her low shot was blocked by senior goalkeeper Torell Stewart. Amanda Carpio of South Dakota found the ball before it rolled out of bounds and her shot slid past Stewart.
Idaho plays Gonzaga 5 p.m. Friday at Guy Wicks Field.
Tess Fox can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @tesstakesphotos