Photo credit Martin Bazyl
TORONTO (CIS) – The Trinity Western Spartans will have a chance to defend their national title after a 1-0 victory over the Cape Breton Capers in the second semifinal on Day 3 of the 2013 CIS women’s soccer championship at Varsity Centre.
The defending champion Spartans advance to their fifth CIS gold-medal match, all in the past decade. Trinity Western will look to keep their undefeated championship final record alive in a rematch of the 2009 final, also played at Varsity Centre, versus the Montreal Carabins on Sunday at 4:30 p.m.
The Spartans won the title in 2009 after topping the Carabins 1-0, 4-2 in penalty kicks. Montreal defeated the Canada West champion Alberta Pandas 2-0 in the first semifinal match to earn their spot in tomorrow’s finale.
The Spartans, who are looking for a record-tying fifth national title, met the Capers only one other time at the CIS women’s soccer championship. In 2006 in Victoria, Trinity Western defeated Cape Breton 4-0 in the consolation semifinal.
“We lacked a little bit of energy,” said Spartans head coach Graham Roxburgh. “I didn’t think we played very well. Cape Breton made it very hard to defend and made life difficult. Montreal is a very good program. We’re going to have to be at our best and better than we were tonight.”
Fifth-year midfielder Natalie Boyd of Surrey, B.C., opened the scoring in the 40th minute as she received a pass from Liverpool, England native Jessica King and fired a rocket off the cross bar that bounced down into the net. The Spartans led 1-0 at the half.
Trinity Western continued to dominate in the second half and had two more great chances to score. In the 57th minute CIS all-Canadian Krista Gommeringer of Calgary sent a booming shot over the cross bar and three minutes later Jenna Di Nunzio (North Delta, B.C.) rang one off the bar.
Cape Breton, who won their lone title in 2007, looks for their second national medal in program history as they take on the Alberta Pandas for bronze Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
“I was very proud of the girls,” said Capers bench boss Ness Timmons. “We had a game plan to try to defend as a unit, take our chances on the counter and try to do a little transition and they scored on us so we had to open up a bit in the second half, but I think we executed our game plan very well.”
“Anytime you lose you slide down but they’ll rally again,” added Timmons. “They know there is a medal on the line and I think they’ll come out ready to play tomorrow.”
SCORING SUMMARY:
TWU 1-0: 1
CBU 0-0: 0
First Half
1. TWU Natalie Boyd (1) (Jessica King), 40th
Second Half
(no scoring)
Goalkeepers:
TWU: Rachel Bedek (W, 0 GA, 0 saves, 90:00, 2-0)
CBU: Tiffany O’Donnell (L, 1 GA, 4 saves, 90:00, 1-1)
Team Stats
Shots: TWU 15, CBU 2
Shots on net: TWU 6, CBU 0
Corners: TWU 5, CBU 2
Offsides: TWU 3, CBU 1
Fouls: TWU 8, CBU 6
Yellow cards: TWU (Krista Gommeringer)
Red cards: none
Players of the game:
TWU: Natalie Boyd
CBU: Allison Bell-Davies
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 1, Cape Breton 0
Sunday, Nov. 10
11:00 5th-place game: Laval vs. Toronto (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
13:30 Bronze medal: Alberta vs. Cape Breton (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
16:30 Championship final: Montreal vs. Trinity Western (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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