The ups and downs of midseason

Posted by admin on Oct 20, 2009 in Sports | 0 comments

This past weekend, the Spartan women dominated the pitch while the men were handed their first loss of the season

Men’s Soccer
On a wet Friday night, the men’s team made the trek west to play local rivals UBC. It was to be a great battle of the top two teams in the Canada West. With a victory for the Spartans, they would be six points ahead of the second-place team, and a loss would put them in a tie for first with UBC.

The match was tightly contested from the very beginning, with UBC holding the edge in possession. This would prove to be a deciding factor as the T-birds’ Tyson Keam found the back of the net in the first half. In what was one of the poorer efforts of the season, the Spartans tried to pull off an
equalizer, but to no avail.

“We really did not play with confidence and did not look like a No. 1 team,” said head coach Pat Rohla on his team’s
performance.

Some controversy has arisen over the game, however. According to the Canada West’s website statistics, goal-scorer Keam should have been suspended for this game due to his fifth yellow card of the season in his previous game against UVic. Whether this is simply a website error or a legitimate concern is still under investigation. If the concern is legitimate, the consequence for playing a suspended player, as stated by the Canada West by-laws, is a forfeit of the game in question.
The Spartans will look to rebound this coming weekend as they host their last two home games against Alberta and Saskatchewan at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Women’s Soccer
The women’s soccer team absolutely blazed through their two weekend home games with a 2-0 win over Calgary and a 3-0 win over Lethbridge. The two wins came after rival UVic handed the women their first loss in the Canada West division the previous weekend.

Leading the Spartans in both games was first-year forward Alicia Tesan with goals in both matches. The freshman is having herself a stellar campaign, leading the team in scoring with six goals. Other weekend goal-scorers include Nikki Wright, Melissa Mobilio and Colleen Webber.

Even with the win against the Lethbridge, head coach Graham Roxburgh was quick to point out the game was less than perfect. “We were very sloppy tonight. No discredit to Lethbridge but we needed to put it away earlier and we caused ourselves some problems probably with a lack of discipline,” he said.

When asked about the Spartans’ seventh week atop the CIS standings, Coach Roxburgh noted that he does not worry about where his team is ranked. “he rankings in many ways are very superficial. I think we just have to keep saying it’s going to be a battle.”

The women will be playing heir last two home games of this season this weekend when they host Alberta and Saskatchewan at 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.