(Photo Credit:Russell Hons/UND Athletics)

After the Fighting Hawks held on to win an exhibition victory over the University of South Dakota 2-1, Head Coach Chris Logan noted some things from Saturday’s sun-drenched affair on a scorching summer afternoon in East Grand Forks. Logan’s areas for improvement do not take away from the complete effort given by everyone during the exhibition season.On Saturday, he was impressed with his team’s ability to bounce back and hold on to the lead despite the physical battle against South Dakota.These areas will help provide a guide to what type of team UND will be this year. UND opens up its regular season this Friday against Nicholls State.

1. This Fighting Hawks team has a lot of speed, especially from its freshman class. Olivia Knox and Cassie Giddings among others have had two superb games up front for the Fighting Hawks. Chris Logan wanted more complimentary pieces to superb senior scorer Katie Moller. It looks like he and his staff have provided those pieces to compliment Moller up front. Look for this superb freshman class to take advantage of the turf surface on UND’s temporary home field in East Grand Forks this season.
2. Logan has noted UND’s need to win more physical battles. This became more evident in the South Dakota game. While UND won the game, South Dakota generated a lot of chances and won a lot of one on one physical battles. If the Fighting Hawks can get back to winning these key confrontations, they can limit chances generated and utilize their full arsenal of superb attackers to generate high quality chances.
3. Finally, with the season opening this Friday at Nicholls State, UND needs to focus on what has worked so far this season. Utilize opportunistic chances and speed to get forward to open up the opposing defense. This team generates more chance on offense. The goal for this first weekend swing down south (Nicholls State, Southern) is to build on the offense while getting back to playing a lock down defense to limit opposing offense and using the back four to start counter attacks up to a full roster of forwards that can make plays in space. This Fighting Hawks team has shown consistent resilience and ability to persevere through games over the past two seasons to improve on their result even when the other team may generate more offense. That ability to bounce back will serve them well on this first southern swing this season.