SECOND SEASON, SECOND DIVISION TITLE

Written By: Andrew Mosier | WPSL Correspondent

For the second consecutive year, the Utah Avalanche is the Wasatch Division champions. And for a second consecutive year, the Avalanche went unbeaten doing it.

Since joining the league in 2022, the Avalanche hasn’t lost a match in 15 contests with the only blemish on an otherwise perfect Wasatch Division record being a 1-1 draw at Utah Surf in the third game of the 2023 season - going 8-0-0 in 2022 and 7-0-1 in 2023. The Avalanche enter the Mountain Conference championship match ranked third in the Central Region Power Rankings and sixth overall.

The Avalanche clinched the division last Thursday with a 3-0 home win over La Roca FC. Avalanche youth prospects Hope Munson and Courtney Cobabe scored their first WPSL goals in the win along with veteran Colette Smith, who bagged her fifth goal.

The key this season, along with a deep, immensely talented player pool, is the team’s ability to score goals.

“We just try to put our players in good positions,” Jimmie Powell, Utah Avalanche head coach, said. “We are lucky. We have some players who can score goals.”

And score goals they have. The Avalanche averaged 3.5 goals per game over eight games this season and scored 28 while conceding only six. Seven Castain (Texas Christian University) led both the division and the conference in scoring with nine goals followed by Colette Smith with five goals on the season and Ruby Hladek with three — all of which came versus Griffins FC. The rest came by committee, with eleven other Avalanche players contributing goals this season.

Munson, a defender for the U-17 US Women’s Youth National Team, opened scoring for the Avalanche in the division-clinching win over La Roca FC with a cleanly-struck volley from inside the penalty area when La Roca could only partially clear a corner kick.

Cobabe doubled the score four minutes before the halftime whistle by poking home a rebound from close range after the La Roca goalkeeper failed to hold a Smith free kick.

The veteran Smith was rewarded with her fifth goal for the Avalanche on the season in the 64^th minute to make it 3-0 as she put back a rebound off the crossbar. Smith held off a defender inside the penalty area before laying, finishing the resulting shot on goal after it smacked off the crossbar.

“Colette [Smith] has been incredible for us all season,” Powell said of his captain. “She is such a big part of this team.”

Less than 24 hours later the Avalanche was back in action at Griffins FC to close out the regular season. Hladek’s hat trick was bookended by goals from Isabel Stratton and Tierney Bailey.

Stratton (Brigham Young University) opened the scoring for the Avalanche in the seventh minute as the result of early pressure on Griffins that resulted in several early opportunities. Then, Hladek (Brigham Young University) bagged her first of three goals with an easy tap-in from close range after finishing off a far-post run. Her second came three minutes later when she calmly ran onto a looping cross and chipped the ball back across the face of the goal to the far upper corner. Hladek completed the hat trick in the 20^th minute of the match.

Bailey (University of Tennessee) closed out the scoring in the 65^th minute with her first goal on the season.

Next up for the Avalanche is the 2023 Mountain Conference championship match, hosted this year by the Rockies Division winners on July 8. The club’s only loss came in last year’s championship match, 5-1 to the Colorado Rapids Women.

“We learned a lot from that loss last year,” Powell said. “It was our first year in the league. I don’t think we were quite ready for a team like the Rapids. This year I think we will be ready.”

The winner moves on to the Central Regional semifinals on July 15 and 16 at a site to be determined. The four regional winners move on to the WPSL Championship in Stillwater, Okla., on July 22 and 23.