MOSCOW, Idaho — Big Sky Conference competition kicked off today for the Northern Arizona women's soccer team against the back-to-back reigning regular season conference champions, the Idaho Vandals. It was an entertaining night of soccer in Idaho's dome as the Lumberjacks defeated the Vandals in overtime 2-1 for their first conference win. Head Coach
Andre Luciano and the Lumberjacks are now 6-4 on the season and 1-0 in Big Sky action with Eastern Washington on Sunday.
"Our players came out mentally prepared and focused against Idaho," Luciano said. "The team showed great resilience coming out and scoring in the first few minutes of the second half; the goal we gave up was unfortunate."
It took an entire half for Northern Arizona to find a rhythm, as they only took one shot compared to Idaho's six and were down 1-0 going into the second half. However, the Lumberjacks picked up momentum, coming out in the first few minutes of the second half to score on just their second shot of the game. The equalizer came from freshman
Paige Maling after a cross from
Adrian Nixt gave her a perfect look in the 47
th minute.
"Paige has created so many chances just in her hard work," said Luciano. "The combination between Paige, Adrian, Malia [Lyken] and Haleigh [Van Allen] was fantastic tonight — an overall team effort."
With a shift in momentum the Lumberjacks were able to outshoot the Vandals, taking nine total shots to Idaho's four carrying them into overtime.
"We put pressure on them in the second half and offensively we created a lot of opportunities," said Luciano.
Much like in the second half, the Lumberjacks came out in overtime with the momentum. In just two minutes, Maling returned the favor to Nixt for the game-winning goal, now the ninth in her career.
Northern Arizona will return to the field Sunday, Sept. 24 at noon to face the reigning conference champions Eastern Washington. The two will match up for the first time since the Lumberjacks fell to them in the championship last season in penalty kicks.
"We are going to rest up, recover and create a game plan to take on a strong Eastern Washington opponent on Sunday," said Luciano.
Eastern Washington is coming off a scoreless tie against Sacramento State after double overtime going into Sunday.
