Vandals Electric Start Spoils New-Look Cougars Season Opener

102 seconds. That’s all it took for Washington State women’s head soccer coach Chris Citowicki to get his first taste of adversity as stared down a 1-0 deficit to start the season.

Outmatched from the start by the rival Idaho Vandals, senior goalkeeper Ashlyn Dvorak misplayed a cross less than two minutes into action, which led to a tap in goal from Calli Chiarelli. 

The dry summer heat beamed down on a Wazzu side that had eight transfer starters following their new coach from Montana. But Citowicki’s debut continued to go south as Idaho’s Alyssa Hamilton sent in a long looping ball from outside that found her teammate Hallie Prinos-Grumbach for a top left header goal, and just like that, the rout was on.

Wazzu needed to stop the bleeding, but the Vandals struck again at the 9:41 mark. From almost midfield, Prinos-Grumbach sent in a sky ball that evaded all Cougar defenders and found her teammate Hamilton for the header goal, returning the favor after the earlier assist.