Women’s Soccer Preview:  Tenth Anniversary Season Holds Promise
for Lady Yellowjacket Soccer

BILLINGS, MT – Montana State-Billings added the women’s soccer program ten years ago, and expectations have never been higher than they are entering the program’s tenth anniversary season.  Following a best-ever 12-4-3 season a year ago, coach Don Trentham’s squad doesn’t plan to miss a beat despite graduating four starters and moving to a new conference and new region.

“We definitely lost some leaders from last year’s team,” said Trentham during a break in this week’s practice schedule.  “The thing we’ve tried to stress is that last year was last year and this is a new year.  We have some good players coming back to fill that leadership role, and we’re excited about the incoming class.  Putting those two things together, we think we’ll have another competitive team.  It’s a bit nerve wracking going into a season where you don’t know the region or the conference as well as you did in the past, but it’s a challenge we look forward to.”

The Yellowjackets join the Texas-based Heartland Conference beginning this fall, and along with it they will move from the ultra-competitive West Region to the Midwest Region.  Trentham says that while the Jackets won’t face the powers from the West—Seattle, Seattle Pacific, and the CCAA schools—they will be competing in a region that is still very strong.  Last year’s NCAA national champion—Metropolitan State in Denver—plays in the Midwest Region.

“Our conference is stronger than people might think,” said Trentham.  “Moving out of the West Region, which is arguably the best in the country, is not necessarily going to make things any easier.  Our schedule is competitive again.  I think it’s tougher top to bottom than it was last year.  Every game will be a challenge, and we’ll need to have our ‘A’ game to win each week.”

The 2005 schedule features eight home dates with long bookend road trips at the beginning and end of the season.  The Lady Jackets open the season with a three game road swing to Colorado where they’ll face Colorado State-Pueblo, Fort Lewis, and Mesa State.  They will follow with eight of their next ten games at home, including the fourth annual MSU Billings Cup on Labor Day weekend.  Joining the Yellowjackets in this year’s Cup will be Adams State and St. Mary’s.

The only road games for MSU Billings between September 3 and October 15 will be at Carroll College in Helena on September 18 and at University of Mary in Bismarck on October 2.  During that same span the Jackets will host Mary, University of Great Falls, Colorado School of Mines, Dallas Baptist, Rocky Mountain, and Carroll College. 

The Yellowjackets will finish the home stretch of the 2005 season away from home with a pair of trips to Texas and a cross-town meeting against Rocky Mountain.  They will take a three game swing to the Lone Star State on October 21-25 with games at Incarnate Word, St. Edward’s, and Angelo State.  After the regular season finale at Rocky on October 29, MSU Billings flies back to Texas for the Heartland Conference Tournament November 3-5.

Although Trentham is viewing the season with a glass-half-full approach, the Yellowjackets will still face the toughest schedule in the program’s history without the services of four starters from last year’s squad that finished the season ranked tenth in the Far West Region.  Missing will be five seniors:  Margot Merrill-Johnson (Salt Lake City), Candy Cherry (Missoula, MT), Stephanie Clark (Tualatin, OR), Megan Beckstead (Salt Lake City), and Laura Trinkle (Westminster, CO).  Merrill-Johnson and Cherry started all 70 games of their collegiate careers, and Merrill-Johnson graduated as the program’s all-time leading scorer.  Filling the gaps left by the five departed seniors will be a huge recruiting class of a dozen freshmen.

“We lost three players that were four-year starters,” said Trentham, “but if you look at our team now you see a lot of players who have been starters since they were freshmen.  Those are players who have started almost every game for the past two years.  We still have Ally (Taylor) Stroup (Ojai, CA), Megan Plank (Phoenix, AZ), Alyssa Wolfer (Longmont, CO), and Kelsey Vinnedge (Great Falls, MT).  I think we have the players who can step into that leadership role.”

Stroup (formerly Ally Taylor before being married this summer) is the top returning scorer.  She netted eight goals with a team-best eight assists last year.  She’ll be chasing Merrill-Johnson’s career scoring title over the next two seasons.  Wolfer added six goals and three assists after moving from goalkeeper to forward.  Vinnedge scored a pair of goals and two assists while anchoring the defense.  Those three along with sophomores Brittney Sandau and Abby Bennett will be expected to carry the scoring load this year.  Also returning defensively is senior Lacey Albrent (Ojai, CA), who made an immediate impact after transferring to MSU Billings last year.

Plank returns for her junior season as the incumbent goalkeeper.  She has been a starter since her arrival at MSU Billings, earning team MVP honors as a freshman and sophomore.  She set school records last year for both time in goal (1836:51) and goals against average (1.03).  She will enter the 2005 campaign with 191 career saves, just 10 short of the school record.

“I feel the program is finally where it needs to be in terms of the number of players we have on the squad,” said Trentham of his large roster.  “We have 24 players, 20 of which are field players and four of which are goalkeepers.  We have a lot of experience returning, and we have a lot of talented incoming freshmen.  To say there’s a player who sticks out in my mind as someone who will be a dominating force, I don’t think we’ll have that person.  I think we’ll have a balanced and competitive team that will be the deepest we’ve had in my four years.”

“Our goal this year is to continue what the 2004 team did,” Trentham concluded.  “They set a solid foundation for this program, and our goal is to continue to build toward establishing that level of success as a tradition at MSU Billings.  We’ll continue to strive to be a successful program on the field, off the field and in the classroom.  Last year’s seniors worked very hard for four years to build the program to what it is.  I think the current players understand the amount of work that took, and they are ready to do their part in continuing to build on a good thing.”

2005 Schedule
8/20 – vs. North Idaho College (exhibition)
8/26 – at Colorado State-Pueblo
8/28 – at Fort Lewis
8/30 – at Mesa State
9/3 – vs. Adams State
9/5 – vs. St. Mary’s
9/10 – vs. Univ. of Mary
9/11 – vs. Great Falls
9/18 – at Carroll College
9/24 – vs. Colorado Mines
10/2 – at Univ. of Mary
10/6 – vs. Dallas Baptist
10/12 – vs. Rocky Mountain
10/15 – vs. Carroll College
10/21 – at Incarnate Word
10/23 – at St. Edward’s
10/25 – at Angelo State
10/29 – at Rocky Mountain
11/3-5 – at Heartland Conference Tournament