The University of the Fraser Valley women’s soccer team suffered its first loss of the Canada West regular season on Saturday afternoon, dropping a 2-1 decision to the MacEwan Griffins in Edmonton.
The CIS No. 5-ranked Cascades, the last remaining undefeated team in Canada West at 5-0-1 coming into Saturday’s action, fell behind 1-0 in the 12th minute on MacEwan striker Isabelle Dobbin’s fourth goal of the season. A UFV turnover at midfield gave the Griffins’ Meagan Lemoine a breakaway down the left flank, and she sent a cross to Dobbin whose shot found the lower left corner behind Cascades keeper Kayla Klim.
UFV bounced back in short order, though – before the 12th minute was up, Monika Levarsky won the ball and got it to Gurneet Dhaliwal, who slotted it into the bottom right corner from 20 yards out. Dhaliwal’s fourth goal of the campaign moved her into a tie with Levarsky for the team lead.
But five minutes later, another Cascade turnover led to another Griffins goal. MacEwan’s Sheena Tracey connected with Lemoine for the finish, and the Cascades were unable to find an equalizer despite several dangerous forays into Griffins territory in the second half.
“We made a few mistakes today and were punished for it,” Cascades head coach Rob Giesbrecht analyzed. “It was some uncharacteristic mistakes that did us in. They did what they had to do to get the result today, and we didn’t.”
The Cascades (5-1-1) wrap up their Alberta road trip tomorrow in Calgary vs. the Mount Royal Cougars. Kick-off is 12 p.m. Mountain time (11 a.m. Pacific).
“I really like the character of my team, and I’m excited to see how we respond tomorrow,” Giesbrecht said. “We’ve got to own this, we’ve got to move forward, we’ve got to keep our heads up and fight hard the next game.”
– with files from Junelle Mah, Griffins Athletics sports information
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