ISU goalie Trinity Hale named All-Conference Honorable Mention following historic freshman season

POCATELLO — Another difficult season for the Idaho State University women’s soccer team finished with the Bengals in the Big Sky Conference cellar. But things are on the uptick, according to goalie Trinity Hale, who was recently named an All-Conference Honorable Mention.

Hale missed the entirety of her first season with the team last year, after suffering an injury during the first practice session she had at ISU. As she explained, the team, being extra cautious, chose to sit her for the full season and use her redshirt year — the process of keeping a player out for a full season in order to extend their eligibility.

This year, as a redshirt freshman, Hale finished first in the Big Sky Conference in saves (89) while facing the second-most shots of any goalie in the conference (274). Her six shutouts were third-most in the Big Sky, as were her 5.24 saves per game.

“It was crazy,” Hale said of where her performance placed her among her conference peers this season. “I knew I was capable of making an impact here — I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t know I could be an impact player.”

The 19-year-old etched her name across the program record books. Her season-high 13 saves against Eastern Washington on Oct. 13 are tied for fourth-most in school history, and her 12 at Idaho on Oct. 20 are tied for sixth-most.

For the season, Hale’s 89 saves place her 8th all-time in Bengals history; her six shutouts tie her for third all-time; her 5.24 saves per game are fifth-best all-time; and her .774 save percentage are ninth-best all-time for an ISU keeper.

All that after a neck and nerve injury left her with a loss of feeling her arm and hand, and knocked her from the perch of what she believed was the best physical, mental and competitive shape she had ever been in.

“I came into last season, before I was hurt, at my peak,” she said. “Getting hurt, kinda, sent me downhill and I only had the end of the summer to train really hard — to get back to where I was.”

Now, the Murrieta, Calif. product will use a full offseason of working out and training to come back even better.

“I am interested to see where I will be at, with those extra hours (of training),” she said.

Hale has been playing soccer since she was a child, but did not make the move from the field to the goalie box until high school. It didn’t take long, she said, for the picture of her future as a goalie to come into focus — she realized early on that she wanted to play in college.

Then, after meeting ISU coach Dustin Downey during a camp, she decided that she was going to be a Bengal and leave a lasting impression on the Pocatello campus and soccer community.

“It was no longer, ‘I want to just play soccer somewhere.’ No, I want to make an impact somewhere, I want to make my name somewhere, I need a place that’s going to remember me,” she said.

She is well on her way, following a freshman campaign that saw her achieve so much. But, she insists, she can only go up from there.

The coming growth, she added, is combination of being able to put in a full offseason of training, and the maturation she achieved while being sidelined last season.

But improving as a player isn’t all she sees. Hale believes the Bengals will be drastically improved as a team in 2025.

ISU, which has endured 10 straight losing season, finished 2024 with a 2-10-5 record. But, as Hale pointed out, many of those losses were low-scoring, one-goal defeats — four to be exact. And four of the five draws finished in a 0-0 score.

Next season, Hale said, conference foes will learn not to look down on the Bengals.

“I think, next year is our year — we’ll be on a rising track,” Hale said. “Our team is capable of winning. It will happen, it will come. We have to be patient, but we’re not a team to underestimate.”

The key to that growth, she said, is improving the team-dynamic — becoming closer and teammates. As she explained, most of the players who make up the current Bengals roster, came from playing with club teams. They are used to sharing the field with players they have known and played with for years.

Now, they are having to learn to play with girls whom they have, in many cases, met mere months ago.

But this offseason, the goal for the squad is to change that.

They will play together — shoveling snow to do it, if need be. They will bond — perhaps taking team-building trips. And when next fall rolls around, the talent will be joined by a newly formed tighter camaraderie.

Her sophomore season, Hale said, will see the Bengals compete and show that they will not be pushed around. By her junior season, she expects ISU to compete for a conference title.

“If we work the way that we know we can work, if we all push each other equally … I think, next year will be a great season. But the following season will be our season,” she said.