Already gifted a golden ticket – as hosts of the Canadian national championships – the Douglas College Royals women’s soccer team now faces its final rehearsal.
After posting a middling 5-4-3 record, the defending PacWest champions enter this week’s provincials with a few items on their checklist.
Staying healthy is high on that list.
Douglas secured the second seed entering the three-team tournament, which kicks off Friday at Burnaby Lake West complex with the semifinal against the host club, but have that motivation of a defending champ.
Going in as an underdog is added incentive.
With the regular season behind them and a national berth guaranteed, Royals head coach Chris Laxton says the goal this weekend is to lay the foundation for Nov. 7 to 10 at Coquitlam’s Town Centre Park.
“I’d like to see the team play a complete, composed game, and hopefully be in the (provincial) final,” said Laxton, who over saw the Royals run to the nationals last year. “We want to win it and defend our title, but we don’t have that extra pressure of needing it to advance.”
The Royals finished the regular season last weekend with a 2-0 triumph over the Langara Falcons, breaking a first-half stalemate on Mikayla Hamilton’s sixth of the season seven minutes into the second half. Sofia Flores-Aguilera added some insurance in the 69th minute.
For Hamilton, that was her league-leading sixth tally, but first since Oct. 6.
Picking up her second straight shutout was Alexa Gazzola, who was busy in stopping eight shots. The Falcons applied a lot of pressure, especially in the second half as a win was their only way to advance to the provincials.
Douglas’ defence, coupled with a sharp outing by Gazzola, made that improbable.
It followed a similar result two weeks ago, where the Royals blanked Capilano 3-0, on tallies from St. Thomas More alumna Mikaela Montagano, Sneha Sandhu and co-captain Sam Kell.
After a blip of inconsistency during September, which saw them post a sub-500 record, the team has strung together a better, more consistent effort. Giving everyone some starts, to help ease the physical strain and lessen injury opportunities, is hopefully going to pay off, said Laxton.
“That’s been big for us, to give everyone some good playing time,” he said. “We’ve rotated players into the starting lineup and that should pay dividends not only in the coming weeks, but next year as well.”
Captains Taylor Wettig, at midfield, and Kell, at a variety of positions, have set a solid tone heading into the playoff season, the coach added.
“We hope to be in the final and get another PacWest banner. I don’t think we’ve played our best yet.”
Douglas squares off against Capilano on Friday in the semifinal match. A win will put them in the final Saturday against first-place Vancouver Island. All games kick off at noon at Burnaby Lake West complex.
Royals men look to gain momentum
Now, the real challenge starts.
The Douglas College Royals men’s soccer team may be ranked No. 2 in Canada, but to live up to that billing, and have a chance at improving on last year’s national silver medal, they need to produce this weekend.
The PacWest provincial championships take to the Burnaby Lake pitch this weekend, and the Royals enter as the second seed, needing to beat Langara on Friday (noon) to advance to Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. final against regular season champion Capilano.
Douglas enter the playoffs fresh off an 8-0 lambasting of Langara last week, led by Burnaby’s Tomi Fagbongbe’s hat trick. The sophomore forward scored just two minutes into the game to start the onslaught.
Race Willams also scored twice in the win.
Cyr gives Douglas serious digging advantage
Douglas College freshman Miranda Cyr is playing like a seasoned veteran when it comes to PacWest women’s volleyball.
The first year libero stepped into the second week of league action and put together solid back-to-back performances against the Camosun Chargers, leading her team to a pair of triumphs.
The Royals survived a serious challenge from the visiting Chargers on Friday, prevailing 3-2 (18-25, 25-17, 25-18, 16-25, 15-10) after dropping the first set. Cyr racked up 11 digs while Caet McCorkell had a team-high 11 kills. A day later, Douglas blanked Camosun 3-0, getting seven kills each from Vania de Oliveira and Emma Schill, and 14 digs from Cyr.
