COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho—The 54th North Idaho Sports Banquet awards took place at the Coeur d'Alene Inn this past weekend. The University of Idaho walked away with two of the night's awards, including Team of the Year and Female Athlete of the Year.
The Idaho women's soccer team saw unprecedented success during the 2015 season, tying the program-record for wins and winning its first ever regular season championship. The Vandals finished the year 14-4-3 and unbeaten in Big Sky play at 9-0-1. Idaho recorded program-records for goals, assists, points and shutouts and finished with its first ever unbeaten home season. The Vandals are currently riding a 14-game unbeaten streak, the longest in the nation.
Nine different Vandals earned All-Big Sky honors, including freshman Amanda Poertner who was named Goalkeeper of the Year and head coach Derek Pittman who earned Coach of the Year accolades. Several individual records were also broken during the season. Junior Clara Gomez set the Idaho and Big Sky record for assists in a season with 13, while Poertner set the school record for shutouts with nine. Poertner's goals against average of 0.82 is also a program record.
“We're very proud and very excited to be recognized by the North Idaho Hall of Fame as the College Team of the Year,” said Pittman. “It's just great that our team is being recognized by the entire state. It gives us a great sense of pride and accomplishment for what our players were able to achieve this past year. We definitely hope to continue and it's nice to set the standards where you have this level of expectations on an annual basis.”
Senior Christina Salvatore was honored as the North Idaho Hall of Fame's Female Athlete of the Year. Salvatore led the Vandals in scoring (11.8 ppg), 3-point field goals made (2.7 pg), assists (3.4 apg) and steals (1.6 spg). The Anaheim, Calif., native, helped the Vandals to their third conference championship and NCAA Tournament appearance in her four years. She totaled 88 3-pointers on the season, helping her break Idaho's career 3-point record with 332.
Salvatore became Idaho's all-time leader in games started, finishing her career with 123 starts. She is second in team history, playing in 129 career games. Her 1,370 career points finish ninth best in school history. She also cracked the top-10 in steals and consecutive games played.
“This is an honor well deserved for Christina,” head coach Jon Newlee commented. “She had a fantastic senior year and was a huge reason we were able to make it to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in four years. What a great way to cap off an unprecedented four-year run, both individually and as a team.”
