The weather has not been kind to the Washington State women’s soccer team. While spring games began in March, the first two games were canceled due to poor weather and travel conditions.

The Cougars will start their spring season against the Gonzaga Bulldogs Saturday morning and then take on the Idaho Vandals in the afternoon.

“We have had a good month of practice with a week off for spring break,” WSU soccer Head Coach Steve Nugent said. “We’ve been spending a lot of time on our style of play and not so much a system.”

The women’s soccer team will face a couple of new challenges in this coming season. The Cougars lost Pac-12 Player of the Year forward Micaela Castain and defensive specialist Rachael Doyle to graduation.

“We’ve lost a pretty strong group of seniors,” Nugent said. “The seniors are an influential group on and off the field.”

After two NCAA tournament appearances under former Head Coach Keidane McAlpine, WSU was forced to find a replacement when McAlpine left for USC’s soccer program.

Nugent will be given the task to get acquainted with his new team this spring before the team begins the new season next year.

“I’m really excited,” Nugent said. “The team is excited to play somebody else besides themselves. The athletes are jonesing to finally compete.”

Nugent is the sixth head coach in Washington State’s program history and joins the Crimson and Gray after six years with UNC Greensboro.

Some players to look out for on the offensive side of the pitch will be junior forwards, Mesa Owsley and Jocelyn Jeffers. Also, a young striker that could make a large impact is freshman Kaitlyn Johnson, who made a large impact late in the season.

On the defensive side, redshirt junior goalkeeper Gurveen Clair will appear in her last spring season. Clair recorded 15 clean slates.

The Cougars are coming off of a second-place finish in the Pac-12 and a first round loss in the NCAA Tournament last year.

WSU will host Gonzaga and Idaho on Grimes field, and the first match is at 11 a.m. against Gonzaga.