QF #2 CIS women’s soccer championship: Tessier stars as defending champs oust Pandas

Photo credit Andrew Dobrowolskyj, McGill

MONTREAL (CIS) – Jackie Tessier scored once and assisted on the winner as the Queen’s Gaels opened the defence of their national title with a 2-1 win over the Alberta Pandas in quarter-final action at the CIS women’s soccer championship tournament at Percival Molson Stadium, Thursday afternoon.

The OUA champion Gaels advance to Saturday’s early semifinal at 1:30 p.m. when they will face Ontario conference rival Ottawa, which defeated Dalhousie 3-2 earlier on Thursday.

Canada West runner-up Alberta was eliminated for gold medal contention and relegated to the consolation round. The Pandas will play Dalhousie on Saturday.

Tessier, a third-year music major from Peterborough, Ont., opened the scoring in the 17th minute of play. The all-Canadian forward converted a crossing pass from Alexis McKinty and fired an acrobatic bicycle kick past goaltender Kelti Biggs of Spruce Grove, Alta.

“I was ahead of the play and sensed that the crossing pass was going behind me,” said Tessier, who was named as Queen’s player of the game. “I turned back and thought ‘why not try a bicycle kick’? I’ve never done that it a game before but I made some good contact, turned around and saw that it went in off the far post.”

Kayla Michaels of Edmonton scored the equalizer in the 66th minute but three minutes later, Tessier fired a crossing pass to set up the game-winner by Alexis McKinty, a third-year midfielder from Burlington, Ont.

“I’m satisfied with the result but think that this was one of our poorer performances of the year. But you have to give some credit to Alberta, who was very good today,” said Gaels head coach Dave McDowell, whose team claimed the second Gladys Bean memorial trophy in school history a year ago in Charlottetown. “We have found a way this year. We haven’t been down in many games but we always seem to respond immediately when our opponents score.”

It was a wide-open game with Alberta holding a 16-12 in shots attempted and a 6-1 margin in corner kicks. ‘Keeper Chantel Marson of London, Ont., made six saves for the victory, while Biggs registered eight in a losing cause.

Shalla Kadima, a third-year defender from Edmonton, was picked as player of the game for the Pandas.

SCORING SUMMARY

QNS 1-1: 2
ALB 0-1: 1
 
First half
1. QNS Jackie Tessier (1) (Alexis McKinty), 17th   
 
Second half
2. ALB Kayla Michaels (1) (Elise Emmott), 66th  
3. QNS Alexis McKinty (1) (Jackie Tessier), 69th
 
Goalkeepers:
QNS: Chantel Marson (W, 1 GA, 6 saves, 90:00, 1-0)
ALB: Kelti Biggs (L, 2 GA, 8 saves, 90:00, 0-1)
 
Shots: QNS 12, ALB  6
Shots on net: QNS 10, ALB  7
Corners: QNS 1, ALB  6
Offsides: QNS 3, ALB  4
Fouls: (not available)
Yellow cards: none
Red cards: none 
 
Players of the game:
QNS: Jackie Tessier
ALB: Shalla Kadima

SCHEDULE & RESULTS

Thursday, Nov. 10
10:30 Quarter-final 1: Ottawa 3 Dalhousie 2
13:30 Quarter-final 2: Queen’s 2 Alberta 1
16:30 Quarter-final 3: Montreal vs. Laurier (SSN Canada webcast)
19:30 Quarter-final 4: Trinity Western vs. McGill (SSN Canada webcast)

Friday, Nov. 11
16:30 Consolation 1: Dalhousie vs. Alberta (SSN Canada webcast)
19:30 Consolation 2: Loser QF 3 vs. Loser QF 4 (SSN Canada webcast)

Saturday, Nov. 12
13:30 Semifinal 1: Ottawa vs. Queen’s (SSN Canada webcast)
16:30 Semifinal 2: Winner QF 3 vs. Winner QF 4 (SSN Canada webcast)
19:30 5th-place game (SSN Canada webcast)

Sunday, Nov. 13
13:30 Bronze medal (SSN Canada webcast)
16:00 Championship final (SSN Canada webcast)

-CIS-