2006 Outlook

[cabis]

The soccer team reported yesterday and started practice today. With the regular season getting underway in a little over 2 weeks a season outlook is in order. Here goes with my 2 cents.
Last year's team went 11-5-1 and moved up 76 places on the ratings from 250 to 174 out of 307 Division 1 schools. The team has a lot of turnover this year but still looks solid. We graduated 6 seniors 4 of whom were starters. 4 players, none starters, left for whatever reason and one, Goalkeeper and Div 1 independant defensive player of the year Karli Kopietz suffered a carreer ending injury in the off-season. With a freshman class of 7 and the return of Chelsea Body and Ashley Chandler from injury redshirts the Bison will be slightly less deep than last year.
The schedule is a bit "lopsided" for lack of a better word. Of the 18 games 5 are against teams rated significantly( more than 50 spots) higher than the Bison, 4 against teams within 50 spots either way and 9 against teams rated at least 50 spots below the bison. The top 5 teams on our schedule, Minnesota, Weber State, Drake, Iowa State and UNLV are all in the first 8 games so a solid fall camp is essential. The good news about the early part of the schedule is two of the tough ones are at home with Weber State on Sept 10 and Drake on Sept 17. We will get a good acid test in an away exhibition game with perrenial NCAA qualifier Creighton on Aug 17.
In subsequent posts I will attempt to give a breakdown from back to front and finally a prediction on the team's results.

[Bisonguy]

Thanks for the great insight!!!


Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooaaalll Bison!!! :)

[cabis]

Coaches
One of the biggest moves of the season is the one that didn't happen. Coach Cuadrado was offered the position at Ball State but turned them down. A true Bison!
Assistant Matt Howe left to take a position as head of Nebraska youth soccer. He will be ably replaced by Randy Jewett with the Bison. Howe was in charge of the strikers with the Bison but the biggest loss in the transition will be ND youth soccer where Matt was in charge of training youth coaches.
John Ross returns as defence and goal keeper coach.
Overall the coaching is dead solid.

Goalkeeper
Last year junior Karli Kopietz was the Bison's best player. She was the Div 1 Independant defensive player of the year and was near the top in most NCAA Div 1 goalkeeping stats. She started all games and played all but 62 minutes of the season. She suffered an offseason knee injury that appears to have ended her Bison career. Her loss will be the biggest question mark for the Bison.
Junior Jessica Nei who started 11 games as a true freshman in 2003 then missed all 2004 due to injury was the backup last year and got into 2 games for 62 minutes. The only other keeper on the roster is true freshman Monica Morgan so one will have a true opportunity to rise to the challenge. I am sure coach Ross will have them ready.

[Bison13]

Coach Cuadrado is one of the best coaches on campus. Not only coaching wise but personality. NDSU is lucky to have him on campus. Hope to have many successful soccer years with him!

[cabis]

Defence
Graduating only one senior in starter Becky Skrypek. the defence will once again be rock solid led by seniors Sarah Panzer, Erin Ellsworth and junior Jami Rozell. Junior Ashley Chandler is coming back from a medical redshirt after starting every game in her first two seasons as a Bison. Also coming off a medical redshirt is Chelsea Body who started 8 games as a true freshman in 2004. With the depth on defence coach Cuadrado is looking to use the imposing Body as a stiker this season. Nicole Rand a natural midfielder also put in a lot of solid minutes in the back as a freshman last season.
Coach Ross should have no worries with this group, allowing him ample time to work with the keepers.

Midfield
Graduation claimed the center of the Bison midfield in starters Olivia Cole and Carlie Christensen, but this years group should be just as strong. The returning starting outside mids are juniors Patty Romeo and Kelsey Hohol. Romeo will likely move inside and be joined by sophomore Becky Iwanicki. Iwanicki had become a starter for 3 games last season as a true freshman until a late season injury. Soph Nicole Rand also started a game as a freshman and played starter type minutes as both a midfielder and back. Hohol and Iwanicki are both workhorses that can run all day. While this group is highly talented, the depth will be provided by freshman so another great opportunity for new players to step up.

[cabis]

Strikers
This is the area that has the highest attrition with the garaduation of starter Jessica Rodgers and Erin Tierney and Angie Stenson. Also leaving were Stacey Howell and Keri Blanchette who both provided significant minutes. Having said that, the good news is the Bison return their top two scorers in Junior Michelle Martinez and Soph Jestina Orlando who started every game as a true freshman. They are joined by senior Danielle Thompson and possibly soph Chelsea Body who may be converting from defender. Again good opportunities available for freshmen to contribute. The Bison are set up to score from everywhere and all positions so once again offence should not be a problem.

Freshmen
Don't know much about them. Mostly midfielders and strikers in HS/Club. They all come from good club programs so I am sure coach C has done it again. His recruiting has been excellent to date.
Heard one rumor that Alison Feders, a highly touted striker recruit from Woodbury Minn is out for the season with ACL, but not 100% certain.
Any further info on the frosh would be appreciated.

[cabis]

Predictions.....

Vs Mary Aug 25 Win by a bunch 5-0
@ Minnesota Aug 27 Win in a tight one 2-1 Gophs had nationaly ranked recruiting but can be beat??
Vs MS Mankato Sep 3 Win but closer than expected 3-2
vs IUPUI Sep 8 Win over our future MidCon mates; Margin will depend on if the announcement has been made yet ;)
vs Weber State Sep 10 Loss in a close one 2-1
vs Drake Sep 17 Win 1-0 in OT Drake coach will whine half as much about being the better team as he did when we beat them 2-0 at Drake last year!
@ Iowa State Sep 20 Loss 3-0 This is a good team.
UNLV @ Creighton Sep 22 Loss 3-1 Another good 2005 NCAA team
Grambling @ Creighton Sep 24 Win 5-1 SWAC just not very good at soccer. Grambling at least tries to improve by playing a good non conference schedule.
@ Montana Sep 29 Win 3-0 Grizz better at football...
Northern Colorado @ Montana Oct 1 Win 3-1 Colorado has great prep soccer but all the best players go elsewhere. Go figure.
@ SDSU* Oct 4 Win 1-0 in 2OT sorry bunnies
@ Utah Valley State* Oct 7 Tie 1-1 very important conference game
vs IPFW Oct 15* Win 4-1 Present USC and future MidCon conference mates. no prisoners. Last home game.
@ Illinois State Oct 20 Loss 3-2 Just a hunch.
@ Northern Iowa Oct 22 Win 4-1 Not a very good team.
Howard* @ NJIT Oct 29 Win 5-0 USC east is weak weak weak
@NJIT Oct 30 Win 5-0 would be worse if we hadn't played yesterday...

If I can add this up right ;)

Overall 13-4-1
Conference 3-0-1 1st in West!

Conference tournament Howard University Washington DC
Quarters Nov 2 Win 5-1
Semi Nov 3 Win 3-1
Final Nov 5 vs SDSU Win 3-0!!! sorry again bunnies

NDSU 2006 United Soccer Conference Champions

Overall record 16-4-1

IPFW gets the USC NCAA autobid and loses to Notre Dame 7-0 in the first round!

[rabidrabbit]

Cabis - Great write-up!!! I'll link this to the Bunny Board and see if can generate a like look at how the Rabbits are shaping up.

Reading the write-up, it appears that the Rabbits and the Bison will be in for the tough battles and tough matches as the best in the USC. Best to both teams, but suspect that we'll see splits, and the interesting matches will be at the USC tourney.

[mikelsch]

Very much enjoyed your preview Cabis.

FYI: the United Soccer Conference does not have an auto-bid to the NCAA tourney

[kchats]

The Mid Con has soccer right? So this could be the only season in the United Soccer Conference for the Bison and Jacks.

[roadwarrior]

The Mid Con has soccer right? *

Yes

[sambini]

Thanks Cabis for your insight in Bison soccer++++++++++

[OCBison]

Coach Cuadrado is one of the best coaches on campus. Not only coaching wise but personality. NDSU is lucky to have him on campus. Hope to have many successful soccer years with him!

I actually liked the old coach but you have to admit that the results started to taper off. I think he had some of those same philosophical differences with Lynn Dorn about the move to DI so it was probably all for the best.

[cabis]

The Mid Con has soccer right? *So this could be the only season in the United Soccer Conference for the Bison and Jacks.
Yes the MidCon has soccer but unfortunately for you kchats the only team that does not sponsor it is UMKC. They do have a men's team but surprizingly not womens.

[cabis]

Very much enjoyed your preview Cabis.

FYI: the United Soccer Conference does not have an auto-bid to the NCAA tourney
Greenie thanks for the comments. Regarding the auto bid, I remember reading somewhere that the USC was getting one for 2006 and thinking it seemed a litle pemature. Since it didn't affect us anyway I didn't dig any deeper. Thanks for the update.
Our post season goals for the next three years will be 2006 USC Championship, 2007 MidCon Championship and finally 2008 MidCon Championship and a date in the big dance!! :)

[mikelsch]

The USC was supposed to have an auto-bid starting in 2008, but who knows if they will have enough fully-fledged DI schools (6) to meet the standards by then. It will go from 8 to 5 if NDSU, SDSU, and IPFW get into the Mid-Con. NJIT is potentially joining after this season, unless they get into a different conference. UND and other potential transitional schools could also be candidates.

[D_One_here_we_come]

Bison knock off Creighton 1-0 in Exhibition! Creighton has been to the national tournament 3 of the last 4 years and lost 1-0 to Nebraska in the first round last year. A vrey good start for the team!

[IowaBison]

Gotta say that I am very impressed by our soccer program.

[mikelsch]

Creighton won the Missouri Valley last year and is preseason #1 again this year.

Bison only have 3 seniors on this year's team...positive outlook for the present and the future.

[cabis]

Freshman Tabitha Dashle has been dropped from the Bison roster. With the season ending injury to freshman Alison Feders we are left with a roster of only 18 potential players. Depth could be an issue as the season progresses.

[IowaBison]

never like those dashles. :P

oh Bisonator, I kid, I kid.