Women’s soccer team rounds out regular season with a tie
Keeton Wilcock | Fulcrum Staff
ON FRIDAY, OCT. 19, the Gee-Gees women’s soccer team capped off an incredible regular season (14-0-2) in a somewhat bittersweet finale against the Queen’s Golden Gaels (10-2-3). While the Gees solidified their reputation as the Canadian team to beat—heading into the playoffs by continuing their undefeated streak—they had to settle for a 0-0 tie against a determined Kingston squad.
“Either way the score went, we wanted to be undefeated,” said fourth-year U of O striker and Human Kinetics student Krista Draycott after the game. “It would have been nice to come away with a win, but our goal was definitely to have a good performance and go into the playoffs feeling good about our play.”
Although the Gees came out on top in ball possession and shots on net, the Gaels’ tight back line limited the Gee-Gees’ chances and forced them to take many of their shots from far away from the goal. The Garnet and Grey’s head coach Steve Johnson commented on the style of play during the match, calling it a “ scrappy” and “physical” game.
“The pace of the game was probably played a little bit too high for me,” said Johnson. “It was a bit too frantic at parts, and I think what we need to do is try to find opportunities to settle it down and play with the ball and maybe control the rhythm a bit more than we did.”
Despite the faults that Johnson noted, the team has much to be excited about. They are widely regarded as the best team in Canada heading into the post-season, and they managed to score an outstanding 54 goals against their opposition over the last 16 games while only allowing one to find the back of their own net, which ties a team record for goals against during the regular season.
“It has been a great season being undefeated and only getting one goal against,” said Draycott. “So it’s been a really great accomplishment and we’re all very proud and very excited for the playoffs.”
The Gee-Gees will now have about a week to rest up, work on passing, practice creating opportunities around the net, and make efforts to slow down their pace of play before hosting the Ontario University Athletics semi-final game on Sunday, Oct. 28.
