Hopes are high for Bison women's soccer team this season

By Jeff Kolpack

July 29, 2011 at 11:00 PM

FARGO - The North Dakota State soccer coaching staff will get some early season help when practice begins next week. The 10 returning seniors have been around so long that they virtually qualify as assistants.

They are the reason expectations are perhaps at an all-time program high heading into head coach Pete Cuadrado's ninth season. They won a Summit League regular-season title as sophomores and a Summit tournament title last year.

They pushed Texas A&M to the limit in a first-round loss in the NCAA tournament. The 1-1 double-overtime tie went to a shootout, won 4-3 by A&M.

"Every year is different. We haven't won anything yet," Cuadrado said.

The veteran team could come in handy early; the Bison play an exhibition at the University of Minnesota six days after starting practice. The teams tied in a spring season game.

"A lot of it is seeing how fast we can get everything on the same page," Cuadrado said. "The nice part is we can start at square one and quickly move through it."

After a road game at Northern Iowa, it's off to Hawaii for a road trip Cuadrado had been working on for a while. The possibility first surfaced when Cuadrado talked to the former Hawaii head coach during a recruiting trip.

Cuadrado then approached NDSU women's athletic director Lynn Dorn on trying to make the budget work. The Bison will play host Hawaii and the University of California in a three-team mini-tournament.

"This big senior group has done a lot for our program," Cuadrado said. "The trip is two-fold: One, the fun part of it going to Hawaii is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The other part is playing a team like Cal."

NDSU lost one player, Danielle DeMent, and gained another, Kaylee McDonald, in the offseason. Knee and back injuries forced DeMent to hang it up. McDonald transferred from Northern State (S.D.).

She scored against NDSU in a spring game two years ago. She transferred at the semester break last year.

"It will be interesting to see what we have in camp," Cuadrado said.

Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack can be reached at (701) 241-5546. Kolpack's NDSU media blog can be found at www.areavoices.com/bisonmedia

By Jeff Kolpack

Jeff would like to dispel the notion he was around when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he is on his third decade of reporting with Forum Communications. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, Jeff has worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he's covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU's Division I FCS national football titles and has written three books: "Horns Up," "North Dakota Tough" and "Covid Kids." He is the radio host of "The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack" April through August.