Next stop is provincials for Kodiaks women’s soccer team
Having officially secured a playoff berth Friday, the Lethbridge College Kodiaks women’s soccer team’s game against the Red Deer Queens was still anything but a pointless endeavour.
So in their second-last regular season game of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference season, the Kodiaks went out and picked up one more point, duelling the Queens to a scoreless draw Saturday afternoon at the Servus Sports Centre.
The Kodiaks were held off the scoresheet, but dealt Red Deer the same fate to move to 5-4-2 as the team completes the regular season today when they host the Lakeland College Rustlers at noon.
The SAIT Trojans defeating the Olds Grizzlies Friday night locked up the third-and-final playoff spot in the ACAC South Division for the Kodiaks.
They won’t go any higher than that — the 7-2-2 Queens are six points ahead in second place — but Kodiaks head coach Sean Carey credited his team for staying focused despite knowing their ticket is punched to the post season dance.
“I’m really satisfied with their performance today,” he said. “In tough conditions like this, it’s tough sometimes knowing you’re already in. It was quite a longshot for us to be able to get second place, but that was our mentality. We have to dig deep and make sure we take some good form going into Friday’s games. We want to show our own fans, too. There are quite a few people out today, which is great to see and we want to make sure we’re in good shape and in a good frame of mind moving forward.”
On Saturday, Kodiaks goaltender Brittany Klein made seven saves as Lethbridge put three shots on goal.
The hosts tested Queens goaltender Erin Gill late in the second half, including a couple of races for loose balls that the Red Deer goaltender was able to get to and smother.
“Their goalie is one of the best in the league, so it’s going to take a good chance to beat her,” said Carey. “But if you’re creating chances, you’re doing things right. So that’s the mentality I want our girls to have. We keep working hard right to the end. I think in the last 10 minutes we probably had four good looks at the net and that’s a testament to the girls just not giving up.”
For that, the Kodiaks season is extended by at least another week as they prepare to head to Calgary next weekend for the ACAC championship hosted by SAIT.
“I think we’ll do well in playoffs. It’s exciting,” said Kodiaks forward Kayla Kehoe, who had two shot attempts Saturday afternoon. “This is my only year playing at the college so it’s exciting that we get to go while I’m playing.
“The girls are so much fun and they’re welcoming. It makes it really easy to play. We play well on the field because we get along so well, so I think that helps us.”
“To me, it’s a good way to keep moving forward toward the (provincial) weekend.”
But first, second place will be decided today.
The Kodiaks can make anything that happens in Medicine Hat a moot point with a win over the Rustlers.
“Everybody’s really excited right now and hopefully that will give us some momentum going into tomorrow,” said
Britton.
“You know they need a big win tomorrow,” added Carey of the Kings. “With Medicine Hat, one day they’re really good and one day they’re not. They’re on a bad run right now, losing again today and that’s not going to put them in a good mood. You hope that they can take care of Red Deer tomorrow. But you just saw two red cards on Red Deer (Saturday), so that’s two guys not playing tomorrow.”
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