Welcome to our weekly update on the matches in the women's division of the Summit League, a seemingly ever-changing cluster of schools which nonetheless has been home to South Dakota State (Jackrabbits) and North Dakota State (Bison) since it was founded in 2007 and now also hosts Kansas City (Roos), Omaha (Mavericks), North Dakota (Fighting Hawks), Oral Roberts (Golden Eagles), St Thomas (Tommies) and South Dakota (Coyotes). The season begins with exhibition games, which are essentially scrimmages in that the competing schools don't report results or count the result towards their season record. Hence my nicknaming it "the twilight zone". For the Bison, that was a road trip to Wisconsin (Badgers) in Madison, WI where no stats exist except the line-up. In case you are curious, that line-up was Mulberry, both Garrett twins, Miller, Stanchina, Berge, Gleeson, Garcia, Plate, Arnold, and Russmann.
This week sees the second phase of the season begin, the "non-conference" schedule. The Tommies dropped a tough 4-0 home opener to Marquette in St Paul yesterday; the Coyotes and Golden Eagles traveled. South Dakota won 4-0 at Northern Iowa (Panthers); Iowa State (Cyclones) beat Omaha in the Mavericks' home opener 1-0 while massively outperforming their hosts in every other attacking statistic; and the Golden Eagles saw off late pressure from Central Arkansas (Bears) to win 4-1.
The Bison and Jackrabbits both play their openers at home tonight - against Green Bay (Phoenix) and Manitoba (Bisons), respectively. Lastly, the Fighting Hawks are on the road in Falcon Heights against the Minnesota (Golden Gophers) tonight as well.
This weekend sees the second part of the week's action for Summit schools, but more about that in the recap. We will be on the ground at the Bison v Phoenix game, and since North Dakota State hasn't kept a clean sheet in a year, I would expect goals.
The third portion of the season is the conference schedule, which starts on Thursday, September 24th with the Fighting Hawks hosting the Bison.
