SEASON PREVIEW: Women’s soccer

The Gee-Gees women's soccer team begins its regular season this weekend, kicking off a campaign which will include a program first: a host berth at the U SPORTS National Championship. The championship stands at the beginning of November and will be Ottawa's 14th appearance at the national championship. But never before has the berth been guaranteed.

16 regular season games and as many as four OUA playoff games are on the horizon first for the Garnet and Grey, who are once again led by head coach Steve Johnson. Johnson's career regular season record stands at 237-30-59 over 24 seasons – a miniscule nine percent losing percentage. Ottawa reached the OUA quarterfinals in the last two seasons, finishing the year both times against their archrivals from Queen's.

The 2018 squad includes a group of veterans who earned national championship experience at Ottawa's last appearance in 2014: Katherine Bearne, Delaney Rickert-Hall, Sophie Curtis, Kayla Da Costa-Pacheco all earned bronze medals at the nationals in Laval that season. The foursome now has major roles on the team and will be leaned upon to continue their all-star caliber play.

Along with the veterans, a large core group returns from 2017 including OUA All-Star Cooper Lee at defence, Margot Shore in goal, and Miranda Smith and Katerin Delev in midfield. Including Bearne and Da Costa-Pacheco, the Gee-Gees have all six OUA All-Stars returning from 2017. Vanessa El-Asmar (MF), Faythe Lou (S), Anika Littlemore (D), and Hannah Landry (D) are the graduated players.

Ottawa tuned up with a pair of home exhibition games which showcased the strength of the returning players as well as the new additions to the roster. A 1-0 loss to the Alberta Pandas, who went 10-2-2 in Canada West play in 2017 featured three keepers for uOttawa: Shore started the match followed by French national Hillary Damman and Gabrielle Emilien, who transferred to uOttawa from Howard University. All three made stand-out stops against the Pandas.

In a 3-1 win over UQTR it was the offence that shone, generating plenty of scoring chances. Goals came from Bearne, Rickert-Hall, and third-year Gee-Gee forward Emma Lefebvre while Kaitlyn Ball, a transfer from Maine and Ottawa local, contributed to the pace on offence. Keeper Julie-Anne Lamarche appeared in the match, providing another steady performance to add to her résume which includes 14 starts for Ottawa over the last two seasons.

"We are prepared – the team is ready. It's a continuation of the style of play that we were working on last year because we were happy with that," says Johnson. "I liked the progress last year and I like the way it looks now."

"The training level is really high and that was one of the things we wanted to do when we brought this group together was make sure that we had players of a really narrow talent band so that top to bottom it is competitive," continues Johnson.

"I think we're still the type of team that is going to create a lot of chances – we may not convert as many as we would like. It's always going to be important for us to be strong defensively and we have that on the field – we are a good strong defensive team."

The Gee-Gees season begins with a slate of six road games before the home opener on September 15. First up, the team travels to North Bay for a 12 p.m. match at Nipissing on Saturday. The next day the team takes on Laurentian at 12 p.m. The Lakers were 4-10-2 in 2017 including a 1-0 loss to Ottawa, while the Voyageurs finished fourth in the OUA East with a 7-5-4 record. The Gee-Gees drew 1-1 against Laurentian in Sudbury last season.

The Gee-Gees regular season will conclude with six straight home games, capped with a finale against Queen's on October 21 to lead into the postseason.

As previously announced, all Gee-Gees home games with the exception of the October 13 tilt with UOIT will be at Gee-Gees Field, which is also the site of the 2018 U SPORTS National Championship. All regular season and playoff home games will be webcast on OUA.tv.

RETURNING PLAYERS:

Théa Abdul Nour, Katherine Bearne, Sophie Curtis, Kayla Da Costa-Pacheco, Lauren Da Luz, Katerine Delev, Charlotte Gagnon-Lewis, Julie-Anne Lamarche, Cooper Lee, Emma Lefebvre, Bryanna Pidgeon, Delaney Rickert-Hall, Julia Rosenthal, Michelle Salhany, Margot Shore, Miranda Smith, Julia Tardioli, Hailey Walsh.

ADDITIONS:

Kaitlyn Ball (F, Ottawa, Ont.), Hillary Damman (GK, Roncq, France), Gabrielle Emilien (GK, Toronto, Ont.), Yasmina Enneddam (D, Chilliwack, B.C.), Perla Khoury (F, Ottawa, Ont.), Amélie Lachance-Soulard (D, Ottawa, Ont.), Sydney Provost (Kingston, Ont.), Jennifer Rowe (MF, Waterloo, Ont.).