‘It’s like David and Goliath’ Pictou County well represented at CCAA women’s championship
The Dal-AC Rams will dive into the deep end of the pool when they start the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association women’s soccer championships on Wednesday.
In a tournament that forces teams to run the table if they want to grab championship hardware, the No. 8-seeded Rams have a first-round match against threetime reigning national champion and No. 1-ranked Elans de Garneau of Quebec.
“It’s like David and Goliath,” said Rams fifthyear coach Jackie-Fitt Ryan.
“But anything can happen – upsets have happened before.”
The teams meet at 5:30 p.m. at the Mainland Common field in Halifax.
“We’re going in ready to give it our best shot and enjoy the experience, embrace the moment. But for sure, we have a challenge ahead of us.”
The Rams were the class of the Atlantic conference (8-1-3) and for the first time in 11 years they returned to the playoffs. Fitt-Ryan has two assistant coaches from Pictou County – Josh MacKinnon and Melanie Hill – and three of her players hail from this side of Mount Thom: Katie Walsh, Veronica Deno and Kaileigh Langille.
Walsh is a recent graduate of St. Francis Xavier University and competed at the CIS soccer championship a year ago with the X-Women.
“I’m excited and grateful that I have another chance to play at a national tournament,” said Walsh, a first-team conference All-Star (Deno was a second-team All-Star this season).
At the conference championship tournament two weeks ago in Saint John, N.B., Dal AC lost a semifinal game 1-0 to the Kings Blue Devils on penalty kicks – 13 of them, for each team.
To prepare for their opener, the Rams have watched game film on Garneau. Fitt-Ryan said there are certain adjustments her team will need to make, including formation changes and getting players in the right spots to be successful against a formidable opponent.
“We have to stay organized and we have to trust in each other and we need to make sure everyone is pulling their weight all around the field because when you play a team that’s as good as Garneau, it’s not going to be individual efforts; it’s going to be an entire team playing at their best,” she added. The ACAA-champion St.
Thomas Tommies will meet the Grande Prairie Wolves of Alberta today at 10 a.m.
Other firstround matchups are: Algonquin (Ontario) vs.
Saint Lambert (Quebec), 12:30 p.m., and Douglas (B.C.) vs.
NAIT (Alberta),
3 p.m.
Semifinals will be played Thursday. The bronze-medal game is Saturday at 3 p.m., followed by the gold-medal match at 5:30 p.m.
(with files from Truro Daily News)