Mark Privratsky (@markprivratsky)

​Welcome to NSIC in MN, where we cover some of the best Division 2 soccer in the country, highlighting the nine Minnesota squads playing in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. Last year Bemidji State and Minnesota State Mankato both advanced in the NCAA Tournament, with BSU making it all the way to the Quarterfinals (along with their first ever NSIC Tourney Crown). In advance of this weekends D2 kickoff, we present your ultimate NSIC in MN Season Preview. It’s easiest to break the teams down in tiers, which we’ve dubbed “The Underdogs”, “So You’re Saying There’s a Chance?” and “The Contenders”. We’ll give you the breakdown on each team, the tiers of squads, and show you how and where to watch games. Thankfully, the Northern Sun is one of the easiest Conferences to stream in all of College Sports. Their website streams every game for free (nsicnetwork.com), and they now feature an NSIC Network App as well. In a world of increasing cord cutting cost, this is about as accessible as it gets. One wrinkle of the NSIC schedule you will see below is that because of the loss of Upper Iowa to the Great Lakes Valley Conference, multiple squads have NSIC opponents on their early non conference schedule and will then play them again when it counts in NSIC standings. ​

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Year after year we as fans are reminded why the Northern Sun Conference is one of the best Division 2 conferences in the country. You know who doesn’t need reminding? The smaller programs that fight to climb up a tier in the NSIC. The Underdogs are Southwest Minnesota State, MSU Moorhead, and Minnesota Crookston. Each season they work to find stability in a tough league, hoping to build year over year into a team that finds its place in the mid table and contends for NSIC Tournament play. Don’t let the underdogs fool you though, every year a big team gets tripped up or drops a seed due to one of the underdog NSIC squads. Even if they don’t contend for titles, they can fight for Rivalry trophies, like the incredible Hwy 75 Rivalry Rock that puts some drama in the MSU Moorhead vs Minnesota Crookston matchup each year. 

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​While it can be safe to assume the top 4-5 teams of the Northern Sun (especially the top 3 MN teams), the middle of the conference is a battle of atrophy. These are the Minnesota teams that are in the mix for postseason spots, but can never feel complacent in their place in the standings. The "So You Think There's a Chance" squads are Winona State, Minnesota Duluth and St Cloud State. Winona took a step up and snagged the 6th seed in last years NSIC Tourney, with Duluth and St Cloud just missing out in 9th (1 point out) and 10th (3 points out). All three of these squads will come in with realistic hope of making the postseason, but betting odds would say not all three can get to the NSIC Tourney without big steps forward.

(If you post highlights of goals, we will use them constantly!)

​It’s not hard to separate out the top 3 Minnesota NSIC teams over the past few years. Minnesota State Mankato is again picked to win the Northern Sun Conference by the Coaches, but as always with the NSIC, it’s more about the tiers of teams throughout the league. Mankato is joined by Bemidji State (last year's NSIC Tourney Champion) and Concordia St Paul as real MN contenders to win the Northern Sun. Bemidji State comes into the 2023 season after a historic run to the NCAA Quarterfinals last year, where they beat the aforementioned Mavericks in double overtime. We choose to include Concordia St Paul, who was picked to finish 4th after a “down year” finishing tied for 6th in 2022. Don’t forget the Golden Bears are a team that won the NSIC Title in 2019. They’ll hope to improve on their first round NSIC Tourney loss to MSU Mankato last season. If you’re looking for the most notable games in Non Conference overall, it's the murderers row of opponents coming to Mankato to play the Mavericks at “The Pitch”. After traveling to #16 Emporia State, the Mavs host #13 Central Missouri and #8 Grand Valley State next weekend in a likely NCAA regional preview for later this year. 

We talked to Emmy Ellington of Western Illinois and Rochester FC in the W League this week! Emmy shared what she loves about Western Illinois, how she's recruiting to build Rochester up even more, and how she's working towards professional ambitions.

Twitter formatting undercut the views on our interview with Assist legend Jessie Hunt! Jessie joined us to talk about her Northeastern program record 13 assists last year, what she loves about Boston and what it was like on the WPSL Championship run for Salvo SC this summer. 

Mark Privratsky

​The College Soccer season has begun and that means it's time to track every Minnesotan Woman playing D1 across the country! The goal of our "D1 Minnesotans" coverage is to track stats throughout the year, highlight the Minnesotans standing out at the D1 level, and give you easy games to watch each week. As always, we appreciate our patreons and readers sending in players we have missed! As if now we have 119 players in our tracker. If you see a player (or coach) missing in the stat tracker below, submit the player to us in this google form (https://forms.gle/ZcpJqKcdY2nJ74A4A) and we'll make sure to include them! Just like in previous years, we've already got pockets of Minnesotans starring across the country. Northern Iowa is being paced by Lauren Heinsch and Olivia Knoepfle (pictured above) along with 3 other Loon Staters. The Gophers have rolled their first non conference opponents and Drake has restocked their MN contingent with a First Year Angela Gutierrez who had a game winner over Green Bay in her second college game. 

Northern Iowa has 5 Minnesotans on their roster of 29 but they pack a punch. First year Forward Morgan Barnette (Maple Grove) scored the game winner in her first ever college game at St Thomas, while Lauren Heinsch (Mahtomedi) keeps reminding us why she’s started all of the 51 college games she’s played, scoring 3 goals in her first 3 games of the year. Meanwhile another first year, defender Olivia Bohl (Rosemount) has played 225 minutes in her first 3 games, a statement by her coaches that she’s a player to be trusted. Olivia Knoepfle (Andover) also has 2 assists after playing a decent amount in her Redshirt Freshman season last year, and Jenna Nyblom (Lakeville) saw time in the first weekend of games as well. The road to Panther glory may be via Minnesota this year. 
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In terms of starting your College Soccer career off right, it couldn’t have gone much better for Oakdale’s Angela Gutierrez. Gutierrez had an assist in the opener against Wisconsin-Parkside, and more impressively, scored the only goal in a 1-0 win at Green Bay, which earned her Missouri Valley Conference Freshman of the Week. Junior Defender Brooke Davies (Shakopee) played sparingly as a Freshman, but started 17 games last year and looks to have her spot back in the lineup. Delaney Goertzen (Woodbury) is a grad student now and has had ups (mostly) and downs at Drake, playing 47 games and over 3000 minutes before a season ending injury last year. The Minnesotan trio will have a role to play in helping Drake take the next step in the Missouri Valley Conference this season. 

In the last few seasons, the Gophers may have had issues scoring goals. With 9 goals in their first two games, you'd hope to see that trend change this year. Minnesota had probably their 2 lightest non conference opponents to start the year and they took advantage of that with a 5-1 win over Niagara and a 4-0 win over New Hampshire at ELR. Tons of Minnesotans played a role but you could easily spotlight Sophia Boman (Edina), a consistent goal contributor who has 2 goals and 2 assists in 2 games. Credit to First Year Forward Paige Kalal (Brooklyn Park) who has played 87 minutes and snagged an assist in the win over New Hampshire. The Gophers travel to UW-Milwaukee tonight at 7pm. We will stream the game at the Blackhart Bar in St Paul! You can watch it on ESPN+ on your devices. 

​After this weekend, we’ll see if Niagara makes a trip to Minnesota anytime soon. The Gophers started the weekend with a 5-1 win, and the "New Kids on the Block" St Thomas went 2 further, scoring a 7-0 victory. Right at the center was Mariah Nguyen, who had the first Division 1 hat trick in St Thomas history. For her efforts (along with 20+ Minnesotan teammates) she was named (respecting branding) "TicketSmarter Summit League Offensive Peak Performer of the Week"! Nguyen continues to grow her game from her First Year at Bemidji State, to the summers with Aurora. St Thomas travels to Portland State for a tough non conference game on ESPN+ Friday afternoon at 3 (see more details below!)

Ava Bjorkman Tracy had already played in over 30 college games before this season started at UNC Ashville, but not all Minnesotans tune in to the Big South to see that. Summer League followers in Minnesota may remember Ava started this summer as a training player for MN Aurora FC before earning an unprecedented callup to the full squad late in the season. Call it momentum from a good summer, or just continued growth, but Ava started her Junior season wasting no time, scoring a game winning assist in a 1-0 win at VMI. Bjorkman Tracy is one of the easiest players to track as nearly all of Ashville's games are on ESPN+. They play Davidson tonight at 4pm. 

After leading the nation in assists for part of last year, ending up with 13 on the season (a program record), Jessie Hunt is back dropping dimes. Northeastern faced a tough Non Conference opponent in Xavier in their opener and took a 0-2 loss. But in their second game of the year, Hunt had 2 assists to power Northeastern to a 3-1 win at Holy Cross. Hunt, who originally played for two years at Wisconsin, has made a name for herself in the Northeast and will look to lead the Huskies to the NCAA Tourney this year. Northeastern are a bit tougher to stream, but you can pay for Flo FC to watch theirs and other mid major games from other conferences. You may hear more from Jessie Hunt on Equal Time soon!

With 119 (and counting) Minnesotans playing D1 soccer, how can we possibly keep track? One way is our "Games to Watch" feature! ​There are plenty of free or easily accessibly games to catch each week. ESPN+ will be your friend and is worth the price (especially considering the other soccer and sports they own). Summit League games, where the most Minnesotans play, have moved to the Summit League Network, which you access via the Midco Sports App. With the amount of Minnesotans playing in the Summit League, it should be worth your while as well. We will periodically host watch parties at the Blackhart Bar for Gopher away games or other matchups with Minnesotans, stay tuned to our social to be in the loop!

Thursday, August 24

Minnesota at UW-Milwaukee
Kickoff: 7pm
Stream: ESPN+

SDSU at Drake
Kickoff: 7pm
Stream: ESPN+

Friday, August 25

St Thomas at Portland State
Kickoff: 3pm
Stream: ESPN+

Sunday, August 27

NDSU at Drake
Kickoff: 1pm
Stream: ESPN+

South Dakota St vs Iowa State
Kickoff: 1pm
Stream: Summit League Network (Midco Sports App)

Tuesday, August 29

Northern Iowa vs St Ambrose
Kickoff: 4pm
​Stream: ESPN+

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​Alabama State
Kassandra Schoen - 1 goal, 79 minutes in 2 games
 
Arkansas-Pine Bluff
Brisha Musungu - 1 goal, 59 minutes in 1 game
 
Army
Hannah Pohlidal - DNP
 
Austin Peay
Hannah Zahn - 159 minutes in 2 games
 
Boston College
Andi Barth - 147 minutes in 2 games
 
Brown
Clare Gagne - DNP
 
Denver
Shay Payne - DNP
Megan Prazich - 180 minutes in 2 games
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Drake
Brooke Davies - 61 minutes in 2 games
Delaney Goertzen - 97 minutes in 2 games
Angela Gutierrez - 1 goal, 1 assist, 116 minutes in 3 games
 
​Florida Atlantic
Mia Sennes - DNP
 
Illinois State
Katharine Ashley - 132 minutes in 2 games
Erica Moline - DNP

Kansas State
Rilyn Rintoul - 75 minutes in 2 games

Kent State
Luca Ralph - 55 minutes in 2 games
 
Lipscomb
Lydia Hindt - 65 minutes in 2 games
 
Long Beach State
Katarina Decaroli - 3 minutes, 2 goals against in 1 game
 
Loyola Chicago
Amanda Cassidy - 1 goal, 180 minutes in 2 games
Jordan Pascarella - 90 minutes in 1 game
 
Marquette
Chloe Olson - DNP
Abby Ruhland - DNP
 
​Minnesota
Sophia Barjesth - 80 minutes in 2 games
Alma Beaton - 9 minutes in 1 game
Sophia Boman - 2 goals, 2 assists in 2 games
Grace Fogarty - DNP
Abi Frandsen - 1 goal, 141 minutes in 2 games
Khyah Harper - 33 minutes in 1 game
Sadie Harper - 85 minutes in 2 games
Taylor Heimerl - 82 minutes in 2 games
Paige Kalal - 1 assist, 87 minutes in 2 games
Sarah Martin - DNP
Megan Plaschko - .54 GAA, 1 Save, 167 minutes in 2 games
Maddy Raymond - 7 minutes in 1 game
Maddie Shannon - DNP
Kendall Stadden - 7 minutes in 1 game
Jelena Zbiljic - 96 minutes in 2 games
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Navy
Emma Frommelt - 9 minutes in 2 games
 
NDSU
Paige Goaley - 125 minutes in 2 games
Madalyn Grate - 29 minutes in 1 game
Jess Hanley -70 minutes in 1 game
Kaitlyn Hanson - DNP
Kelsey Kallio - 1 assist, 113 minutes in 2 games
Olivia Lovick - 114 minutes in 2 games
Maddie Majewski -2 minutes in 1 game
Izzy Smith - DNP
Ave Stanchina - 29 minutes in 2 games
Mckenna Strand - 166 minutes in 2 games
Loretta Wacek - 1 assist, 87 minutes in 2 games
Olivia Watson - 156 minutes in 2 games

Nebraska
Lauren Buzzell - DNP
 
North Carolina 
Maddie Dahlien - DNP
 
North Carolina-Ashville
Ava Bjorkman-Tracy - 1 assist, 142 minutes in 2 games
 
North Dakota
Katie Alto - DNP
Sydney Bakritzes - First Year Recruit, Edina, MN
Jessica Machovec - DNP
Avery Toms - 27 minutes in 1 game

 
Northeastern
Lauren Ahles - 62 minutes in 2 games
Jessie Hunt - 2 assists, 149 minutes in 2 games
 
Northern Illinois University
Jordyn Saddler - DNP
 
Northern Iowa
Morgan Barnette - 1 goal, 86 minutes in 3 games
Olivia Bohl - 225 minutes in 3 games
Lauren Heinsch - 3 goals, 171 minutes in 3 games (51 starts in 51 college games, 16 g, 4a)
Olivia Knoepfle - 2 assists, 150 minutes in 3 games
Jenna Nyblom - 15 minutes in 1 game
 
Northwestern
Ramira Ambrose - 6 minutes in 1 game
Sydney Panek - DNP
 
Notre Dame
Paige Peltier - 14 minutes in 2 games
 
Omaha
Lindsey Birch - 108 minutes in 2 games
 
Oregon State
Anna Wagner - 27 minutes in 1 game
 
​Penn State
Kaitlyn MacBean - 90 minutes in 2 games
 
Seton Hall
Ella Conger - 2 minutes in 1 game
 
South Dakota State
Kayla Anderson - 86 minutes in 2 games
Katelyn Beulke - 59 minutes in 2 games
Lauren Eckerle - 1 assist, 152 minutes in 2 games
Ava Grate - DNP
Maya Hansen - 3 goals, 1 assist, 95 minutes in 2 games
Katherine Jones - 1 goal, 92 minutes in 2 games
Emma Knack - 0.00 GAA, 1 Save, 90 minutes in 1 game
Jocelyn Tanner - 0.00 GAA, 2 Saves, 90 minutes in 1 game
 
South Dakota
Brooklyn Bordson - 120 minutes in 2 games
Izzy Quintavalle - 120 minutes in 2 games
 
SIU-Edwardsville
Mary Fetter - 56 minutes in 2 games
 
St Thomas
Abby Brantner - 1 goal, 148 minutes in 2 games
Ella Bryant - 43 minutes in 2 games
Sofia Caballero - 151 minutes in 2 games
Annika Eckroth - 44 minutes in 1 game
Emma Fournier - 1 goal, 39 minutes in 2 games
CJ Fredkove - 1 goal, 22 minutes in 1 game
Jasmine Gates - 2 assists, 126 minutes in 2 games
Olivia Graupmann - 0.00 GAA, 0 Saves, 18 minutes in 1 game
Abby Hoiska - DNP
Lexi Huber - 1 assist, 72 minutes in 2 games
Cedar Jorgenson - 67 minutes in 2 games
Molly Knoblauch - 95 minutes in 2 games
Anna Koepke - 77 minutes in games
Sydney Kubes - 163 minutes in 2 games
McKenna Lehman - 11 minutes in 1 game
Bella Meier - 15 minutes in 1 game
Lissa Mizutani - 1 goal, 71 minutes in 2 games
Mariah Nguyen - 3 goals, 116 minutes in 2 games
Kendall Quall - 116 minutes in 2 games
Camryn Rintoul - 144 minutes in 2 games
Olivia Rowe - 163 minutes in 2 games
Tatum Trettel - 10 minutes in 1 game
 
Stetson University
Alexis Smith - 76 minutes in 2 games
 
University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley
Ana Recarte-Pacheco - 179 minutes in 2 games
 
Utah Tech 
Madison Monson - 23 minutes in 1 game
 
Wake Forest
Payton Cahill - DNP
 
Western Illinois 
Emmy Ellington - 180 minutes in 2 games
Rita Moran - 156 minutes in 2 games
 
Wisconsin
Dara Adringa - 27 minutes in 2 games
Maddie Ishaug - 171 minutes in 2 games
Kenzie Jacobson - 27 minutes in 2 games
Maddie Poor - 15 minutes in 1 game

Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Clara Broecker -1 goal, 176 minutes in 2 games
Alyssa Marceau - DNP

We want to cover all of the D1 players and coaches that we can! You can help us with that. If you know of a Minnesotan player or coach who we have not highlighted, submit them to the form below and we can grow our coverage together. Thank you to the many readers who have already done so this year!PLAYER/COACH SUBMISSION FORM: https://forms.gle/ZcpJqKcdY2nJ74A4A 

Matt Privratsky (@MattPrivratsky)

I guess you could say Minnesota's two DI women's soccer programs had an *okay* opening weekend. The Universities of MN and St Thomas went 3-1 and outscored their opponents by a combined 16-1 en route to claiming player of the week honors in their respective conferences. So, with spirits about as high as they can be, let's jump into 5 Things on the Gophers and Toms from opening weekend. 

1) Holy hell, the set pieces
In my detailed season preview, I argued that Minnesota would need to seriously improve its set piece effectiveness if they were going to reach closer to their goal of a Big Ten Championship. Well, I guess you could say they delivered. In just two games, the Gophers have converted six set piece goals (Boman's opening free kick, Childers/Boman/Romine free kick, Van Loon/Nemec corner, Frandsen's free kick follow up rocket, Boman penalty kick, Kalal/Rothwell corner). So, you know, uh...wow..

The corner kicks don't always feel lethal and the fact that there are multiple players taking corners (and set pieces overall) always means there's a bit of variety in the service and setup, but there is no way you can watch the opening weekend of Gopher Soccer matches and still think of set pieces as a weakness. Is there a chance this is the high water mark and they don't continue to average *THREE* set piece goals a game? Yes. That is absolutely possible. But even converting a *single* set piece goal could be the margin for many drag-it-out Big Ten games. And if the attacking unit continues to move and combine as well as they have, there's no reason to believe the amount of set pieces (corners, free kicks in dangerous territory, even PKs) they earn will go down all that much. This looks like a possible strength for this year's Minnesota squad. 

2) The value of a getting a bad result (early)
It's possible I was a little over dramatic about the Gophers loss to Iowa State at the end of their exhibition season, but there is no doubt that the team did not look good in that showing. If you watched that match AND the two opening regular season wins, you wouldn't be out of place to wonder if it was the same team. However, getting a lackluster performance out of the way during exhibition season can have its benefits. Not only did the Gophers get a chance to see how it felt to underperform and drop a very getable result, they had a full game of film to examine that showed precisely *why* the performance may have fallen short. That crappy feeling in your gut combined with clear, digestible improvements to make in your next showing can be helpful in creating good motivation your next time out. And, low and behold, Minnesota took that rough (but schedule-wise meaningless) result and *seriously* bounced back to trounce Niagara and New Hampshire. 

For the University of St Thomas, they didn’t really get the "luxury" of getting that tough game fully out of the way during exhibition play. Though their early season scrimmages against Waldorf and Viterbo provided lots of opportunity to build chemistry and sort out some finer pieces of how they might play together, they didn’t necessarily give the Toms a chance to see how they'd respond when challenged. So then, when their opener against UNI (a team they beat 3-0 on the road last season) dragged into a low scoring game where goals just weren’t really coming their way, they ended up having their version of the rough result. And, like MN, they were able to bounce ALL the way back for an epic 7-0 win, also over Niagara. The only catch was having to experience it in the regular season vs pre-season.

3) Feeling Fresh
Of all the benefits of blowout wins, getting to see a ton of new faces is certainly one of the most fun. For Minnesota, we've already seen the debuts of Kate Childers, Paige Kalal, Taylor Heimerl, Kendall Stadden, and Maddie Raymond. For St Thomas, we’ve got to see Cedar Jorgenson, Kendall Quall, Sofia Englund, Abby Hoiska, Karlie Greenthal, Bella Meier (R-FR), Emily Pikarski, and Tatum Trettel (R-Fr).

Even if it's just a short stint, getting to see freshmen suit up gives us a glimpse of how these programs will continue to grow over time and gives the coaches a chance to see who might pop in their first few opportunities on the ball. And, after weeks of grueling training camp in the August heat, it doesn’t hurt for these players to get rewarded with a bit of home crowd applause, either. 

4) Roster Size, Rotation Management
There is no simpler way to expand the rotation and open up the subbing floodgates than to build comfortable, blowout leads. For Head Coach Sheila McGill, who is already known to play well into the St Thomas bench, 28 players have already seen the field. Even for Head Coach Erin Chastain, who's rotation can be a bit shorter at times, 23 players have already seen game minutes. 

The most utilitarian benefit of these early, expanded benches is that players that may be tasked with carrying heavier loads later on in the year get some highly valuable rest during the August heat. And, as mentioned in the section above, it doesn't hurt to reward players with an early opportunity of playing time when the game’s result is all but decided. 

What will be most interesting is tracking how that rotation settles in as games get a bit more tight. In St Thomas’ opening 0-1 loss, 21 players saw the field (Ella Bryant only for a minute, so call it 20 if you want). For this team, that number is actually not entirely unusual -- even if it may seen unfamiliar to folks who haven’t watched the McGill Toms previously. For Equal Time fans and followers, it probably most resembles the mega-benches of the Bemidjis or Mankatos of the DII NSIC. 

But even if the game to game rotation sticks around 20, we’re going to be tracking how much wobble there continues to be both in terms of *who* plays and *where* they play. Does Lissa Mizzutani still continue to see minutes in other spots even as she is SO lethal at rightback? If McGill wants to make room for freshmen like Quall and Jorgenson (who have showed well) the answer might continue to be yes. And, if games get tough on their west coast swing, do we see them pivot to the 4-3-3 and open up more front line minutes vs all the holding mid minutes allotted in the 4-2-2-2? We’ll see.

​For the Gophers, the Milwaukee match will likely be our first chance to see what might be a slightly slimmer rotation. The Panthers got what might be their marquee result of 2023 with an opening night draw against #3 Notre Dame and followed that up with a 3-1 win over SIEU. If they are as good as their potential has shown so far, the Minnesota rotation could be as narrow as 14 or 15 players. Paige Kalal will certainly play in the attacking midfield line. Either Christa Van Loon, Taylor Heimerl, or both may continue to see minutes at left back in addition to Jelena Zbiljic. And at least two central strikers (of Sadie Harper, Izzy Brown, Khyah Harper etc) have to play (but you won’t always see all three). And Barjesteh will continue to get chances as hat third holding mid. 

In short, this Gopher team has shown some really solid depth in the two opening games and even more *potential* depth. But if a game is tight and the rotation gets conservative, don’t be shocked if Chastain only uses 3-4 subs (14-15 players overall) in any individual game. If Minnesota continues to score early and perform even close to the level it showed in the opener, I could see as many as 17 players continuing to cruise in the core rotation (a much higher mark than years 1 & 2 of the Chastain rebuild era – which is a credit to the players and to the success in recruiting them) and even more getting time here and there.

5) High Pressure, High Line
People are definitely bored of hearing me talk about the beauty of a high press defense. But the first weekend of DI games in the Twin Cities gave us multiple looks at how valuable it can be to just keep a high line in general – with or without the havoc, all-out energy I regularly pitch. 

The best example I can think of is the way Minnesota started their opening match against Niagara. There was plenty of pressure when the game called for it. But more than anything, the Gophers were just living up field overall – no matter what kind of trapping or stealing they were attempting. They were spaced well as a unit (the mids didn't leave too much space between themselves and the forwards, defense didn't leave too much space behind them, etc) and were continually active in order to stay in position individually. It didn't always ready like a "press" in terms of intentional pinch points and traps, but it did create the same benefits. Anytime Minnesota lost the ball, they were "giving it up" 90+ yards from their own goal – giving themselves tons of opportunities to steal it back and leaving Niagara essentially zero room to breath and build-up play. It wasn’t quite the "havoc press" I babble about several times per season, but it was incredibly coordinated and impactful. If the Gophers can deploy this "controlled press" consistently, they could really be a pain in the ass come conference play. 

In their 7-0 blowout win over Niagara, St Thomas was also able to keep lines high and score directly from the press, but because Mariah Nguyen was involved it *did* feel like it was a bit more havoc (though never lacking in control). It’s particularly interesting to see a pressing line in St Thomas' 4-2-2-2 because the front line and midfield width aren’t always coming from the same place. With Jasmine Gates and Mariah Nguyen working to pressure an opposing left back, for example, you might then see Lexi Huber have to swing all the way to the front line left wing position near the opposing right back. If they swing the other way, you could see Caballero asked to pressure high, with other midfielders filling in space around the respective front line pressure players. With almost full freedom (and really, responsibility) to bring serious pressure on the back line as the front two attackers on top of the “box” midfield, those two forwards really are bringing the havoc to the top of the defensive shape. But, just as we're tracking outside backs and others being needed to add width in the 4-2-2-2 *attack*, it will be interesting to track the defensive width and shape for the Toms as we inch closer to conference play. 

At minimum, when Niagara got a bit tired, it was clear that the Toms were looking to take advantage (see Emma Fournier's goal where she just takes the edge and never surrenders) – which is a good sign for later this season when games grind to a halt and St Thomas needs to rely on those breakthrough plays late in the game to claim a result (as so many teams do during the college season). 

Games Coming Up (all times MN)
Gophers at Milwaukee
Thursday, August 24th
7PM on ESPN+

St Thomas at Portland St
Friday, August 25th
3PM on ESPN+

Gophers at Marquette
Sunday, August 27th
NOON on FloFC

St Thomas at Western Oregon
Sunday, August 27th
2PM on YouTube

​Support Our Work!
Just during the opening weekend of home games Equal Time deployed four different people to cover Minnesota’s two DI programs and the season is only getting started! If you want to support our coverage of Minnesota women’s soccer, you can start for as little as $2/month at patreon.com/EqualTimeSoccer