August 8, 2007

2007 Women’s Soccer Preview
Lady Jackets Return to the West

BILLINGS, Mont. – A new conference and a new region won’t change their goal.  The Montana State University Billings women’s soccer team will again seek their first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2007.

After coming within a win or two of the NCAA Tournament the last few years in the NCAA Midwest Region, the Yellowjackets will take their game back to the Far West Region and the Great Northwest Athletic Conference in 2007.  MSUB played in the Far West Region as an independent from 1996 to 2004 before a two-year sojourn into the Texas-based Heartland Conference. 

The Jackets’ two years in the Heartland were two of the most successful seasons in school history.  In the program’s first eight years, MSUB was a combined 30-95-1.  Over the last three years, the Jackets have gone 36-15-6 and have been consistently ranked in the top 10 in the region. 

In 2006, MSU Billings won a school record 13 games, including a 10-game winning streak to start the season.  They stumbled to a 3-6-1 mark in the second half of the season to narrowly miss out on the postseason. 

The good news for 2007 is that all but two starters return.  The fact that the two starters lost to graduation are two of the best players in school history isn’t lost on Yellowjacket head coach Don Trentham.  But entering his sixth season as the school’s all-time winningest coach (44-39-7), Trentham is confident that the Jackets return enough experience and talent in ’07 to be competitive again.

“Overall we’re a pretty balanced team,” said Trentham.  “Our biggest strength is our experience coming back.  Anytime you have nine starters, along with 15 returnees, coming back, that experience at the college level is a huge strength.  We’re going to use that to our advantage this year.  If you look at our defense, minus Megan Plank, there are a lot of good players back there.  I think our experience and our defense are our strengths.”

Plank graduated as the most decorated goalkeeper the Jackets’ have ever had.  She started every game of her four-year career at MSU Billings and set every career goalkeeping record in the school record books.  She will be replaced in the net by a freshman in 2007 as her only understudy in 2006 was freshman Kaily Hoffman, who red-shirted.  Hoffman will compete with true freshmen Jordan Fenwick and Brittany Knudtzon for the starting spot.  With inexperience in goal, the Jackets will rely on a solid back line of returning players.

“I think there is a lot of pressure on our defense, but it is pressure they are capable of handling,” said Trentham.  “Anytime you have a freshman in goal, the people in front of them have to step up.  But we’re pretty confident in the three goalkeepers we have coming into camp.  They all three have strengths that will help us have a successful season.  Obviously the defense will have to step up and provide more support.”

That defense includes seniors Abby Bennett, Amy Stephens and Janica Larsen along with juniors Micah Merrill-Johnson and Sara Gress.  Sophomore Samantha Boehm, who started 19 games last year as a true freshman, was lost for the season to an injury sustained during the summer.

With the back line in good hands, the Yellowjackets will have to retool their attack to a degree.  Ally Stroup, the most prolific scorer in school history, will be on the sideline in 2007.  The all-region forward graduated this spring and will serve as the Jackets’ assistant coach this fall.  But the offensive cupboard isn’t bare.  Senior Brittney Sandau, junior Mandy Ploskonka, and sophomore Jelisa Guy have combined for 35 career goals.

“Ally was definitely a very good attacking player for us,” Trentham said.  “I think you’ll see a more well-rounded offense this year.  We don’t necessarily have a go-to player up top, but we have players who can score.  There are players on this team that scored a lot of goals last year when you look at Brittney and Jelisa, but I don’t think we have that one go-to player.  It’s definitely a loss that Ally is gone, but we’re trying to turn it into a positive as best we can.  I don’t think teams will be able to zero in on one player as they did with Ally.  I think we have multiple options to score in our attack this year.”

While Yellowjacket fans will be very familiar with the team Trentham puts on the field, the competition will be all new in 2007.  Gone from the schedule are teams from Texas, replaced by the powerhouses from Washington.  After a five-game slate of tough non-conference opponents to start the season, the Jackets jump into the GNAC schedule in earnest.

“We haven’t played some of these teams in a while, so we don’t know what they’re strengths are,” said Trentham of the GNAC teams.  “We’re not as familiar with them as we used to be.  On the flip side, they don’t know us either.  That’s the adjustment we’re going to have to make, and they’re going to have to make as well.”

The Jackets will have 14 GNAC games on their 20-game schedule.  They will play a home-and-home series with Central Washington, Northwest Nazarene, Saint Martin’s, Seattle, Seattle Pacific, Western Oregon, and Western Washington.  MSUB’s combined record against those seven teams all-time is 2-19-1.

“It’s definitely a strong conference,” said Trentham.  “I think the Heartland was a good conference, too.  The region was very good.  The national champion came out of the region we were in last year in Metro State.  However, I would put the GNAC up there as arguably one of the best conferences in the country.”

The program that won just two games against GNAC teams in the decade before the move to the Heartland is not the same as the program that returns to the Far West Region in 2007.  By early November, the Yellowjackets will know how the transition went.  But for now, Trentham has his team’s sites set on getting to the NCAA Tournament and not leaning on the accomplishments of the last few years.

“I don’t think the last three years matter to us this year,” he said.  “We haven’t proven ourselves in the GNAC, and until we do I don’t think we’re somebody they’re going to worry about.  Right now we only have two wins in our history against teams from the GNAC, so I don’t think they’re overly concerned about us.”

“I don’t think they’re looking at us and saying, ‘Wow, they won 13 games last year,’ because it wasn’t against them.  Until we start beating those teams, I don’t think they’re concerned about us.  That’s our challenge, to be a good team in the GNAC, which will require us to beat a lot of good teams.  At this point in our program, the goal is to get to the NCAA Tournament.  Anything less than that, for the players and the coaches, will be an underachievement.”

2007 Schedule
8/18 – Alumni Game
8/23 – at Adams State
8/25 – vs. Eastern New Mexico (Durango)
8/26 – at Fort Lewis
9/3 – Regis
9/5 – at Mary
9/13 – Western Oregon*
9/16 – Saint Martin’s*
9/20 – at Western Washington*
9/22 – at Central Washington*
9/27 – at Seattle Pacific*
9/29 – at Northwest Nazarene*
10/3 – vs. Rocky Mountain (Daylis)
10/6 – Seattle*
10/12 – Central Washington*
10/14 – Western Washington*
10/19 – at Saint Martin’s*
10/21 – at Western Oregon*
10/25 – Northwest Nazarene*
10/27 – Seattle Pacific*
11/3 – at Seattle*

Home games in bold, played at MSUB College of Technology?
* Great Northwest Athletic Conference Game

2007 Roster
#0 Kaily Hoffman (Fort Collins, Colo.)
#1 Jordan Fenwick (Boise, Idaho)
#2 Mandy Ploskonka (Federal Way, Wash.)
#3 Amy Stephens (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
#4 Caitlin Differding (Sammamish, Wash.)
#5 Abby Bennett (Livingston, Mont.)
#6 Whitney Prescott (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
#7 Brittney Sandau (Billings, Mont.)
#8 Janica Larsen (Salt Lake City)
#9 Chelsea Libby (Puyallup, Wash.)
#10 Jelisa Guy (Kalispell, Mont.)
#11 Samantha Boehm (Wilsonville, Ore.)
#12 Micah Merrill-Johnson (Salt Lake City)
#14 Samantha Sandau (Billings, Mont.)
#15 Danielle Ritter (Great Falls, Mont.)
#16 Melissa Carlson (Renton, Wash.)
#17 Sara Gress (Boise, Idaho)
#18 Kari Foreman (Lakewood, Colo.)
#19 Lauren Anderson (Ridgefield, Wash.)
#20 Jen Joern (Whitefish, Mont.)
#21 Emily English (Whitefish, Mont.)
#22 Ali Gamberg (Lakewood, Colo.)
#23 Carly Valentine (Vancouver, Wash.)
#24 Brittany Knudtzon (Kent, Wash.)
#25 Caitlyn Marrer (Glendale, Ariz.)
#26 Megan Carlson (Sheridan, Wyo.)
#27 Shannon Furlong (Helena, Mont.)