Photo credit Martin Bazyl
TORONTO (CIS) – In their first-ever meeting on the national stage, the RSEQ champion Montreal Carabins defeated the Alberta Pandas 2-0 in semi-final action on Day 3 of the 2013 CIS women’s soccer championship and earn a spot in their third gold-medal match in five years tomorrow at the University of Toronto’s Varsity Centre.
Montreal, which advanced to the semifinals for the fifth time in the past six years with a 2-1 victory over the Western Mustangs on Thursday, will battle the winner of Saturday’s second semifinal between the Trinity Western Spartans and Cape Breton Capers for the Gladys Bean Trophy in the championship final on Sunday at 4:30 p.m.
The Carabins are still in search of their first national title after falling in the gold-medal match in both 2009 and 2011, both time in penalty kicks. Their first championship final appearance also happened at Varsity Centre five years ago, when the Spartans broke a scoreless draw with a 4-2 win in PKs.
The Canada West champion Pandas will face either the Spartans or Capers for bronze tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. Alberta is a perfect 3-0 in CIS bronze-medal matches, claiming third place in 1988, 1991 and 1994.
“It was a well-played game by both teams,” said Carabins head coach Kevin McConnell. “I think we should have finished off one or two chances early and there were quite a few corners in the first half. The motivation certainly won’t be lacking playing in a national final tomorrow but playing two games in two days we are going to have to recover as much as possible.”
Both teams had good chances to score in the early goings. Alberta’s Rebecca Brandt (Edmonton) sent a long ball off the cross bar in the 15th minute, while Montreal’s Kim Brûlé (Trois-Rivières, Que.) sent a long ball off the goalie that landed on top of the net one minute later.
It wasn’t until the 65th minute that Montreal opened the scoring. First-year forward and Montreal native Virginie Labossière was in the right place at the right time, receiving a ball from Steffy Roy-Ouellett (Saint-Hyacinthe, Que.) and shooting it past Alberta goalkeeper Kelti Biggs (Spruce Grove, Alta.) for the eventual game-winner.
Six minutes later, second-year midfielder Constance De Chantal Dumont of Saint-Alexandre, Que., added an insurance marker as she jumped on a loose ball off an Alberta defender and made no mistake in finding the back of the net.
Alberta pressured in the final minutes of action and Laura Kautz (Edmonton) rang one off the post in the final minute, but Carabins keeper Martine Julien (Lachine, Que.) earned the shut out win.
“I think we spent a lot of the game answering the questions that Montreal was asking,” said Pandas head coach Liz Jespen. “We battled hard right to the very end and I was impressed with our willingness to fight. I’m very proud of the team, they battled hard and I don’t think we could ask for more.”
SCORING SUMMARY:
MTL 0-2: 2
ALB 0-0: 0
First Half
(no scoring)
Second Half
1. MTL Virginie Labossière (1) (Steffy Roy-Ouellet) 65th
2. MTL Constance De Chantal Dumont (1) (unassisted), 70th
Goalkeepers:
MTL: Martine Julien (W, 0 GA, 3 saves, 90:00, 2-0)
ALB: Kelti Biggs (L, 2 GA, 4 saves, 90:00, 1-1)
Team Stats
Shots: MTL 9, ALB 8
Shots on net: MTL 6, ALB 4
Corners: MTL 5, ALB 7
Offsides: MTL 1, ALB 1
Fouls: MTL 14, ALB 7
Yellow cards: MTL (Virginie Lévesque)
Red cards: none
Players of the game:
MTL: Melissa Gougeon
ALB: Shalla Kadima
SCHEDULE & RESULTS
Thursday, Nov. 7
11:00 Quarter-final 1: Montreal 2, Western 1
13:30 Quarter-final 2: Alberta 1, Laval 0
16:30 Quarter-final 3: Trinity Western 3, Wilfrid Laurier 0
19:00 Quarter-final 4: Cape Breton 1, Toronto 0
Friday, Nov. 8
13:30 Consolation 1: Laval 2, Western 0
16:30 Consolation 2: Toronto 2, Wilfrid Laurier 1
Saturday, Nov. 9
13:30 Semifinal 1: Montreal 2, Alberta 0
16:30 Semifinal 2: Trinity Western vs. Cape Breton (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
Sunday, Nov. 10
11:00 5th-place game: Laval vs. Toronto (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
13:30 Bronze medal: Alberta vs. TBD (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
16:30 Championship final: Montreal vs. TBD (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
About Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Every year, 11,000 student-athletes and 700 coaches from 55 universities and four regional associations vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit www.cis-sic.ca or follow us on:
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