Women’s soccer dominates Columbia Basin College

Aggressive play and tight mechanics were vital components of NIC women’s soccer 2-0 shutout victory over Columbia Basin College on Saturday.

With NIC’s overwhelming possession ratio, few opportunities were allotted for CBC during the match.

“We’ve been working a lot on maintaining possession,” said NIC forward Haley White.

The team seemed focused and aware of team positioning throughout the match.

Coach Dan Hogan wanted to focus on field vision going into the game against CBC.

“It (vision) helped out a lot defensively,” coach Hogan said. “We picked up more of what the other players were doing.”

Though at times the ball would transition into the neutral zone, it was a rare occasion for CBC to dribble into NIC territory.

The NIC gals combined speed with their intense play and were able to outrun many of the CBC players.

NIC’s Avery Stanton boxes out a CBC player. (Lily Anderson/Sentinel)

“We wanted to make them chase us and test their fitness,” coach Hogan said. “We wanted to keep control of the ball.”

NIC was able to focus more on positioning and goal scoring for the majority of the match with the ball opposite their end of the field.

It was only 20 minutes into the match before White posted the first goal for NIC, knocking the ball in the corner of the net.

“We wanted to emphasize shooting low for the big goalie,” White said.

NIC had a bevy of opportunities throughout the game, but the only other goal came from Megan Lowery toward the end of the second half.

“We’ve got to work at getting the other balls in,” coach Hogan said. “There were at least three other balls that could’ve gone in.”

The team will be facing Walla Walla Community College on Wednesday, and coach Hogan said he would like to focus on controlling the team’s physicality.

“They’re (Walla Walla CC) a physical team,” coach Hogan said. “We have to talk about physicality. If they hit us, let’s just play.”

NIC’s victory over Columbia Basin College brought the women’s soccer record to 4-3-2 for the season thus far.