Defending their crown
photo by Alex Smyth
Women’s soccer shuts out Toronto in key game
THERE WAS A large contrast in the opponents for the University of Ottawa women’s soccer team on Thanksgiving weekend. On Oct. 9, the team hosted the Trent Excalibur, a team that was a turkey to feast on at 1-10-1 heading into the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) match. The next day the Gee-Gees had the chance to add gravy on top with a win against the nationally eighth-ranked Toronto Varsity Blues, who were undefeated at 9-0-2. In the end, Ottawa stuffed themselves with an easy 6-0 win over Trent and a convincing 2-0 victory over Toronto.
In the rainy home game against Trent, Ottawa spread out the scoring: second-year defender Nikki Moreau, fourth-year striker Sara Bullock, and first-year striker Krista Draycott all found the back of the net for the Gees in the first half. Bullock added another goal in the second half, before fifth-year striker Courtney Luscombe returned to the pitch having sat on the bench for most of the half. She promptly scored two goals—one on a great individual effort—to place her second among the top goal-scorers in the OUA with eight tallies. Second-year goalies Melissa Pesant and Michelle McElligot shared the shutout.
On Oct. 10, the Gees had the opportunity to play the undefeated Blues at Matt Anthony Field. The game started off slowly with the ball being passed back and forth between both aggressive teams as they cautiously eased themselves into the contest. Within 10 minutes, however, Luscombe scored the first goal on a breakaway produced from a turnover by the Toronto defence. It was her team-leading ninth goal of the season.
Twenty minutes later, second-year midfielder Brittany Harrison scored after firing a hard shot into the left hand corner of net from 25 yards out, bumping the score to 2-0 after the first 30 minutes.
“I thought it was a really good game for us... Today we came out and tried to approach it like a playoff game and concentrated on playing more aggressively,” said Gee-Gees head coach Steve Johnson. “Everyone worked well, although the defence didn’t get much of an opportunity to prove themselves until the end of the last half of the game.”
The Blues came back stronger in the second half, but the Gees continued to play aggressively, pressuring Toronto with multiple scoring chances. The game was intensified by the increasing number of penalty shots and counter attacks from both sides. Ottawa’s defence pushed the ball forward, allowing their strikers to create more scoring attempts on the Toronto net.
Pesant finally got a chance to make a big save late in the half, stopping a shot that ricocheted off a Blues player into the air. The save helped Pesant preserve the team’s eighth shutout of the season.
“We focused on some key things, like winning first balls and getting in there for second balls,” said Bullock. “That helped us a lot because [Toronto is] a very aggressive team. I think that really kept us in our game, being physical was the most important part, and everyone contributed to it.”
“We played it as if it was a playoff game,” added Harrison. “We didn’t want an undefeated team heading through to the playoffs—we knew we had to beat them, put them in their place.”
With the win, Ottawa improves to 10-1-2, good for top spot in the OUA East. Their next game will be in Kingston on Oct. 18 against the Queen’s Gaels (10-1-1).
