Yotes’ turnaround complete with title
College of Idaho’s Kayla Bigelow, right, battles Eastern Oregon’s Courtney Gaskell on Oct. 17 at Simplot Stadium.Mike Vogt/IPT
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Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
CALDWELL — College of Idaho sophomore Anne Ball might have to answer a few questions from older sister Katie Ball.
Specifically: "What's it like to be a conference champ?"
That's because the sisters represent both ends of the spectrum in Coyote women's soccer as Anne set up the long goal Saturday in the Yotes' 1-0 win over Warner Pacific that clinched a share of the C of I ladies' first-ever Cascade Conference title.
The Yotes are a long way removed from when sister, Katie, was a freshman and part of the C of I's 1-win season back in 2004.
Both sisters have seen plenty of success — Katie's teams were 23-41-6 during her C of I career and twice advanced to the playoffs — thanks in part to coaches Aisha Reed and Niki Taylor. Reed helped turn the team around after that 1-win season — the Yotes went 7-8-1 the next year — before moving into an assistants role to help new coach, Taylor.
Under Taylor, the C of I ladies are now 40-25, have set new school records for wins this season — 13-2 overall — besting last year's record 12-6-2 season.
And now, they have a first conference title and will host Oregon Tech on Saturday at noon at Simplot Stadium in the first-round of the four-team Cascade Conference tournament.
A win, and the Yotes host the title game on Nov. 7 as the tournament's No. 1 seed. An honor they earned thanks to a 2-1 overtime win at Concordia on Friday, which gave the C of I its first win over the Cavaliers since 1995.
A win on Nov. 7 and the C of I could make a little more history — a trip to the NAIA National Tournament beginning Nov. 21 at a site to be determined.
Time to rest
Last week, the No. 8 Coyote volleyball team sat down senior Kathryn Ely, resting her for postseason play.
One of the team's best outside hitters, Ely missed almost all of last season with a stress fracture in her leg. Prompted by medical advice, C of I coach Liz Mendiola opted to rest Ely with a nonconference match against Northwest Nazarene, and matches against three teams in the Cascade Conference's bottom half on the schedule.
Playing road matches at Evergreen State and Northwest — with a combined eight wins this season — over the weekend, Mendiola again rested a Coyote starter, sitting junior setter Madie Machurek.
Machurek hasn't missed any action, but has been battling a minor knee injury this season, warranting some rest.
Even better for the Yotes and Mendiola, the rest came at no expense on the scoreboard — the C of I swept the Geoducks and Eagles — and allowed freshman Melanie Palmer to gain a bit more game experience.
Palmer, a El Segundo (Calif.) High School product, who attended El Camino Community College but did not play volleyball for the Warriors, played in four matches prior to Friday night with 16 assists and three digs.
In the C of I's two matches, she shared time with setter Naomi Reimer and dished out 18 assists and added eight digs with just one ball-handling error all weekend.
It was valuable experience for Palmer, and the Yotes, who appear to be adding to their depth.
Closer than the score ...
It's a famous cliché: "The game was closer than the score indicates," but that's really true about Saturday's Northwest Nazarene soccer game.
The Crusader ladies lost 4-0 to Central Washington in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play, and it was much closer than that score indicated.
After Brittany Franks put the Wildcats up 1-0, the Crusaders had a near-miss when Macey McGovert kicked a shot off the crossbar.
CWU answered with a penalty-kick goal and a 2-0 lead at halftime, that was inches from being a 2-1 margin.
In the second half, Molly Tipton nearly tied it with a corner kick, again off the crossbar.
Kelsy Villegas answered for Central with a goal, making it 3-0, but it could have been 3-2 if not for a few inches.
And in the final minutes, Amber Easterbrook stopped a penalty kick by NNU's Marie Smith, a possible third NNU goal that never found the back of the net.
The Wildcats went ahead and capped the 4-0 win 25 seconds later on a Carson McKole goal.
Truly a game that was closer than the score indicated.
