It seems the Mariners women’s soccer team doesn’t like to lose, or allow goals for that matter. Their only goal against came against Corbin University in their lone defeat of the year, and they have been on a roll ever since.
The M’s closed out Aug. with a 1–0 road victory against TSS Academy. Warner Pacific visited VIU Sept. 2 in a rematch of the Mariners’ resounding 5–0 win less than two weeks earlier, but were blanked again—this time 4–0.
The ladies traveled to the mainland Sept. 8 and 9 to take on Langara College and Quest University, collecting another two clean sheets. The Mariners took the first match against Langara 1–0. After missing an opportunity to score on a breakaway in the first half, Rachel Jones tallied the game’s only goal in the 85th minute for VIU.
The Mariners’ second shut out of the weekend came in a scoreless draw against Quest. The match was a goalkeepers’ duel, as both teams had great scoring chances throughout the game.
“Anytime you can get four points on the road is a good weekend,” says coach Anup Kang. “It’s a very tough and tight league, and anybody can beat the other on any given day.”
The women’s defensive game has been exceptional this season, an area which Kang says the team worked hard to improve over the summer.
“We gave up far too many goals last year to be successful in this league, so our focus in the off-season was to be better in that department,” Kang says. “The girls have worked hard in the off-season to get stronger and faster.”
The men’s squad, who also traveled to Langara and Quest, registered two wins over the weekend. The first match against Langara saw the visitors double-up the hosts 4–2, with Mariner goals coming from Nick Moore, Davis Stupich, Chris Merriman, and Blaze Roberts.
VIU came out flying in their match against Quest, with Jordan DeGraaf scoring 10 minutes into the game. Despite being a man down for the final 30 minutes after a red card was issued, Drissa Bouare and Stephen Ewashko still managed to score for the Mariners in a 3–1 win.
The victories were a change of pace for the M’s, who had lost 4–0 to UVIC and 3–0 to SFU in the previous two matches. Both teams will host UBC-Okanagan and Thompson Rivers University on Sept. 22 and 23 at Mariner Field.
