Preview: @UNCBearsSoccer Opens the 2018 Season in the Colorado Cup This Weekend

Thursday, August 16

Greeley, Colo.

7 pm

University of Northern Colorado

Colorado College

8/14/2018 3:48:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Northern Colorado will begin its competition against the Colorado College and Air Force

By: Matthew Kushar, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. – The 2018 regular season for Northern Colorado soccer team begins on Thursday, as the Bears play host to Colorado College in the first game of the Colorado Cup. The Bear then travel to Boulder to play Air Force on Sunday. UNC looks to take an early lead in the Colorado Cup after winning it last season.

The 2017 UNC team went 13-7-2 overall and the team finished third in the Big Sky Conference with a 5-3-2 record. In the Big Sky Tournament, the Bears advanced to the championship game after defeating the No. 2 seeded Montana. UNC fell in finals to Eastern Washington, who also won the regular season title.

UNC was selected second in the Big Sky Conference preseason poll that was released last week. The Bears received one first place vote and trailing only Eastern Washington.

The Players
The Bears return seven starters and 21 letterwinners, including senior captains Maddie Roberts and Mariel Gutierrez. "We played Mariel at both midfield and forward last season. When we needed goals we pushed her up, but she was an all-conference player at midfield the last couple of years. She's a creative player who can move around," head coach Tim Barrera said. "Maddie Roberts is up front with her explosiveness and that's one of the players from an attacking standpoint that we should be in good shape."

UNC losses four starters and seven letterwinners, including All-Big Sky second-team selection, Madeline Burdick in goal.

"One of the bigger losses for us was in goal with Maddie Burdick moving on. We're coming into the year with inexperience in goal," Barrera said. "Jessica Smith and Skyler Knapp had a good experience in the spring. We have two freshmen joining us, Taylor Washington and Ashley Franza. It's a wide-open competition."

In the team's first exhibition game of the season, UNC topped the University of Denver 2-1 with goals from Roberts and freshman Kalen Nielding. The Bears were down early against the University of Calgary but came back to tie the game, 3-3 with goals from sophomore Taylor Bray, freshman Mckenzie Bray, and freshman Violet Renard. UNC added 14 freshmen to the roster this season and they already are making their impact felt on the team.

A look at the schedule
UNC will have a diverse group of opponents in their non-conference schedule, before facing the familiar foes in the Big Sky.

Barrera talked about the strength of the non-conference schedule that UNC will play this season, "From a scheduling standpoint, we have the Colorado Cup and then we go on the road to go to the Dakotas. We also play the University of Texas. Every year we try to play one Power 5 and see how we perform against them. It's a good test for our players and to go against the Power 5 on the road. We have some good teams coming in. SMU was good last year and they will be better this year. Grand Canyon has some good players. The CSU game will be important since they have improved from last season so it will be a good matchup against a tough, local team."

Barrera would go on to describe his view on the Big Sky conference in 2018, "They (Eastern Washington) graduated some good players, including Big Sky Offensive Player of the Year Chloe Williams. But they have good players and are well coached. I think the rest of the league will be good with most teams being on the upswing. There are two new coaches at Idaho and Montana, plus last year there were a couple of new coaches. It changes things a little bit with new coaching styles and it will be interesting to watch those teams. I think [the Big Sky] is wide open and in the last nine years there have been eight different schools to win the conference tournament and it makes for an interesting league."

Scouting Colorado College
Head coach Geoff Bennett begins his 15th season as head coach at Colorado College. In the 2017 season, Colorado College finished the season with a 6-9-4 overall record and 3-6-2 in the Mountain West. The Tigers were picked 10th in the Mountain West in the preseason polls. Colorado College returns 10 starters and 17 veteran players to give the team great depth and experience to prove expectations wrong. In the first exhibition game of the season, the Tigers were defeated by Grand Canyon 3-1 in Scottsdale. The Tigers would then tie Arizona State in Tempe, 1-1 in the team's final competition before the regular season starts.

UNC defeated Colorado College, 3-1, in the Cup last season, with Mariel Gutierrez scoring a goal and Maddie Roberts helping out with two assists.

Scouting Air Force
Larry Friend will begin his 10th season as head coach of the Falcons and finished the 2017 season with a 7-9-3 record, 4-4-3 in the Mountain West. Air Force returns 19 letterwinners, including starting goalkeeper, senior Jennifer Hiddink. The Falcons also return one of their best offensive players from a season ago in Kaitlyn Cook. Cook was second on the team with four goals and tied for the team lead with 10 assists after starting all 19 games for the Falcons. Air Force defeated FC Boulder, 4-0, in an exhibition match last week, with three goals in the first 30 minutes.

The Bears and Falcons also met last year in the Cup, with UNC getting the 2-0 win on goals from Maddie Roberts and Brooke Braden.

About the Colorado Cup
The eighth annual event features each team playing three games against the other in-state Division I soccer programs. Teams earn the standard three points for a win and one point for a tie. If any of the teams are tied at the end of the Cup, goal differential will be the initial tie-breaker. Total goals would be used as the next tie-breaker scenario.

Following the Bears
Northern Colorado will take on Colorado College at Jackson Stadium on Thursday, August 16th at 7 pm. Admission is free to the public and fans can stream the game live with the free Pluto TV App, channel 241. Live stats for the game will be provided by UNCBears.com. Northern Colorado will then travel to Boulder to play Air Force on Sunday, August 19th at 1:15 pm, with live stats being provided by CUBuffs.com. Follow both games live on Twitter with @UNCBearsSoccer.