The University of the Fraser Valley Cascades women’s soccer team are now preparing to face the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds for the third time this Canada West season. The Cascades now 9-5-1 and with the school’s first ever CIS National Championship invitation in their back pocket look towards capturing the school’s first ever Canada West championship flag, on Sunday, at Edmonton’s Foote Field. The Cascades played two very tough matches with UBC this season winning 2-0 at Bateman Park (Abbotsford, BC) and going into Vancouver on wet windy night and defeating the Thunderbirds 4-3.
The trip to the CIS nationals has now settled in with this young team that returns 18 of the 21 student-athletes on the roster. The nationals are no stranger to Head Coach Rob Giesbrecht, as assistant coach, with TWU when they won the CIS Championship, in 2004, in Montreal. Giesbrecht has done a great job with the Cascades in the 5 months he has been head coach. Rob will take very little credit.
“Wow, it was a tough battle. TWU is an excellent team, loaded with talent and dangerous in so many ways. I was proud of my team for the resiliency they showed and for doing whatever it took to get the result., said Giesbrecht. “We are proud to be heading to the Canada West gold medal game and to the CIS national tournament. The girls have worked so hard and I can’t say enough about how much fun they are to coach.”
Veteran Lyndsay Munro, Maple Ridge, BC feels the same way, an original member of UFV Cascades when they entered the CIS five years ago, the Business Administration major will graduate as a member of the Cascades first ever women’s soccer program to go to the CIS championship tournament. “I can’t express how proud of my team I am. every single person left their heart on the field today. We really showed UFV character and played for each other, said the fifth year defender.
The Cascades captain Megan Webster, Abbotsford, BC was also very happy after the game ended. The fourth year veteran midfielder led the team with 8 goals during the regular season and was the on field leader as the Cascades grew each week over the four months from training camp to today’s final penalty kick. “I am honestly pretty speechless still, this is a surreal feeling, I am so unbelievably proud of my team I can hardly put it into words.” The Criminal Justice major is quick to give Coaches Giesbrecht and Alan Alderson all the praise for their hard work. “We owe a lot of our success to our coaches positive attitudes, they believed in us when a lot of people just thought of us as the underdogs.”
The Cascades will play tomorrow at 11:30AM as all the games were moved up to accommodate the change in time and darkness. The Cascades play their first CIS national championship tournament game on Thursday, November 11th, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. The CIS will announce late tomorrow night (Sunday) the pairings and times for next Thursday’s games.
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