Women return home after failing to qualify for nationals in first round
The Lady Cards led an exciting season but couldn’t come out on top at the NJCAA District B tournament in Hutchinson, Kan. NIC lost to tenth-ranked Butler Community College 1-0 on Nov. 4 ending their season 14-2-1.
“Throughout the game I would say we had four really good chances that typically I thought we would have scored on,” said coach Dan Hogan. “For whatever reason, we just missed a little bit.”
NIC’s freshman forward Anna Valentine made the first attempted shot of the game and hit the crossbar.
Freshman forward Carissa Christensen had a scoring opportunity near the end of the half but launched the ball straight at Butler’s goalkeeper.
Sophomore forward Demi Wignot had two chances to score with 15 minutes remaining in the second half and both went wide.
“Their goalkeeper was really tall, mobile and covered a lot of space or we just hit her,” Hogan said.
The Butler CC Grizzlies delivered the only goal of the game late in the first half. That score was only the eleventh goal to be given up by the Cardinals this season.
Freshman goalkeeper Hannah Slinkard said before the tournament that the Grizzlies are “equally matched” in comparison to their team.
“We probably had about 70 percent of the possession in the game,” Hogan said. “Sports can be somewhat funny sometimes because the best team doesn’t always win.”
Despite the failed attempt to make it to nationals, NIC had an impressive record for the season. They went undefeated for 13 games before losing their first game of the season against the Colorado University Club team in Cheyenne, Wyo.
“[In] that game, we were just out of sync and weren’t communicating to one another as well,” said freshman midfielder Kellee Tilson, general studies. “I think we came off of a really big win so we were kind of not expecting it.”
Hogan has ample time before he throws the Lady Cards back on the field, but he has already started thinking about the future.
Over the winter, he plans to have the returning Lady Cards work on conditioning and strength training. He has plans to get back on the field in March once the snow melts.
With 12 cardinals graduating or moving on, he will have to recruit a half of a team to fill the ranks. He said he can’t release names but has been eyeing a few hopefuls out of the Coeur d’Alene and Sandpoint areas and as far south as Boise and Salt Lake City.
