HELENA, Mont. – The Carroll College women's soccer team will put its five-match winning streak and undefeated Cascade Conference record on the line when the Saints host the College of Idaho Friday at 3:30 p.m. and Rocky Mountain Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at Nelson Stadium.
The two opponents are among strongest in the Cascade Conference. Rocky Mountain is the only other Cascade team that is undefeated in conference play and the College of Idaho's only conference loss came at the hands of Rocky. The challenging weekend comes on the heels of the Saints 2-1 overtime victory over previously unbeaten Eastern Oregon last Saturday.
"Last week and this week we've had to play the top three teams in the conference," head coach David Thorvilson said. "All of them cause different problems for us but they are all very athletic and they have one or two players that can score a ton of goals. Our focus is to know who those players and limit their chances."
College of Idaho is paced by Jamiece Yizar, the conference leader in goals per game at 1.13 and Erika Thompson who has four goals and two assists on the season. The Yote offense has 23 goals while the defense has allowed only eight.
Carroll has spread the offense around with eight different players scoring goals led by
Lexi Pyette,
Michaela Kueffler and
Talya Vaira with two goals each.
The strength of the Saints is the defense that has allowed just six goals in nine games. Goalkeeper
Jamie Carter anchors the defense but the entire back line had two strong games a week ago to allow just one goal from an Eastern Oregon Team that had scored 41 in the eight previous games.
"We match up against the College of Idaho very well, we play very similar style of soccer both offensively and defensively," Thovilson said. "They are very athletic up front and we need to be aware of where their goal scorers are and funnel them to where our defense is the strongest."
Saturday the Saints battle the Rocky a team who, more than anyone in soccer, can be considered the rival of the Saints.
"Rocky Mountain has probably been our biggest rival in my time here," Thorvilson said. "When we play, it is rarely a lopsided score and home field advantage usually plays a major factor in it. We recruit a lot of the same kids and a lot of our players have friends on their team so it intensifies the rivalry."
Mandi Achten leads the Battlin' Bears with five goals and two assists in eight games. Leah Hippauf is second on the ream with three goals.
The Bears are 6-1 in the last seven games with the lone loss coming at the hands of NCAA D-II Northwest Nazarene.
Thorvilson believes the biggest task for the Saints maintain focus in back-to-back games against strong opponents.
"The hardest part about playing back-to-back is just focusing on the team at hand and then switching that focus to Rocky right after the game with CofI," Thorvilson said. "These are two of the top teams in the conference and we can't overlook one for the other. Friday is a big game but we have a rivalry game Saturday so focus is going to be maybe the most important thing this weekend."
Saturday's match will be youth soccer day, any youth soccer player wearing their jersey will be given free admission. Children younger than high school age should be accompanied by an adult.
