As the fall sports season gains momentum, the Boise State women’s soccer team is ready to compete and take down any challenges they may face as a team.
The women’s soccer team started off their season on Aug. 18 with a 1-2 victory over the College of Idaho, an NAIA competitor, in an exhibition game and has continued to roll through every opponent since.
This season, the women’s soccer team has also defeated the University of Utah, Dixie State, the University of Pacific, the University of California Davis and Portland State University.
Not only is the team undefeated, but they have also prevented all of their NCAA opponents from scoring.
According to head coach Jim Thomas, the team has done well so far, but they are far from finished this season.
Photo courtesy Hue Herrick
“This is going to be our journey this year,” Thomas said. “We’re a lot further out of this new era of our program. This is a new personality and a new identity for us. We have so much depth it’s mind-blowing, but we’re really young in that and still learning the essence of competition.”
According to players on the team, this season has been different from years past, but they are ready to take on the challenges that this season might bring.
“We just came off of our COVID season, so everyone was kind of weirded out by the fact that it was a 10-game season,” sophomore health studies major and goalkeeper Genevieve Crenshaw said. “It felt like a fake year last year, but we have switched our mentality to focusing on this new season and are treating it like a real season. Now that we’re all adapted and we’ve had 10 games to get used to each other, we have no excuses but to play the best we can.”
Even though this year has opened up from last year, there are still challenges that the team faces every day. According to sophomore chemistry major and defender Jocelyn Stephens, one of the biggest factors that this team has to overcome is their abundance of younger players.
“Our team has a lot of freshmen and sophomores who don’t have that much experience in games,” Stephens said. “We were a little worried about grouping them with the older players, who do have a lot of game experience, to try to pass on knowledge that they might not have. As the season goes on, we’re finding leadership opportunities for the younger players.”
According to multiple Boise State women’s soccer players, the team has been succeeding and growing both on and off the field. As the players create strong friendships with each other outside of soccer, the team’s on-field performance continues to improve.
According to Crenshaw, one of the biggest team bonding events is the team scavenger hunt. Coach Thomas split the team into multiple groups and sent them all on a scavenger hunt.
This scavenger hunt included well-written riddles which had the next scavenger hunt location encrypted inside it. After singing a Christmas carol to a stranger, thanking the nurses at a St. Luke’s Medical Center and swimming across Quinn’s Pond, the groups finished off their journey at Coach Thomas’ house where he had food set up for all of the players and let them swim together in his neighborhood pool.
“The dynamic of our team is so enjoyable that it makes it so much fun,” Crenshaw said. “We’ll be sitting in the airport or a bus and everyone is just having a fun time with each other. I think it’s just being a part of the team and building relationships with everyone [that] is my favorite part of the season so far.”
The team chemistry is paying off, as the team has already achieved accolades, such as setting the longest shutout streak in program history, going 5-0 for the first time in program history and being one of five teams this season to not allow a single goal from opponents.
The team continues to grow together and compete on a high level daily, making them one of the more successful teams in their division.
Their next game is against the Utah Valley Wolverines in Orem, Utah on Friday, Sept. 10.
