Holy Cross women make national soccer history.
Team wins Newfoundland and Labrador’s first-ever national women’s soccer medal, finishing third in Surrey. B.C.
They didn’t come up with a win, but the members of the Holy Cross women’s soccer team nevertheless created some history on Monday.
The Avalon Ford Crusaders claimed a bronze medal at Soccer Canada’s Jubilee Trophy championship in Surrey, B.C., giving Newfoundland and Labrador its first-ever podium finish at the national senior women’s soccer championship.
Holy Cross was guaranteed at least a bronze after topping its preliminary-round pool, but Monday’s 3-0 loss to eventual champion Edmonton Victoria of Alberta denied the Newfoundland champions a higher finish. Nevertheless, head coach Jake Stanford expressed admiration for the way his players performed this week in suburban Vancouver.
“We started this year with the goal of winning the (provincial) Jubilee Trophy and coming away with a medal at nationals and that’s what we’ve done,” said Stanford, “so I can’t say that I’m anything but proud of this team.
“We’ll enjoy this and celebrate what we’ve done and then we’ll start to work on getting back here and coming away with an
even better medal next year.”
Holy Cross had started its schedule with preliminaryround wins over the Quebec and Saskatchewan champions, outscoring their opponents 8-1 in the process. But the Newfoundland representatives didn’t score a goal in the three-team medal round, getting shut out 1-0 by host Surrey on Saturday before being blanked by Edmonton on Monday.
Surrey and Edmonton had played to a 2-2 tie in their medal-round meeting, but the Albertans claimed gold by virtue of a better goal differential.
“Hats off to them, they were the better team today,” said Stanford of the new national champs. “They did outplay us, but still it was nice to see Newfoundland playing in a big game that meant something.”
The best previous result by a team representing the province at the national Jubilee Trophy competition was a fourth-place finish by a C.B.S. Kirby United in 2014 in Vaughan, Ont.
Holy Cross was one of six Newfoundland teams participating in Toyota national soccer championships this week, but the only one that made it into medal contention.
Stanford expressed hope that Holy Cross’s medal win at the national senior women’s championship will provide some positive impetus to Newfoundland and Labrador teams at future Canadian championships,
whatever the age-gender division.
“As a province, we need to build on this. We just can’t let this be a one-off,” he said.
Members of the Holy Cross team include Alyssa Armstrong, Jennifer Bent, Jaime Crocker, Julie Crocker, Connie Lewis, Maria Mackey, Teri Murphy, Jessie Noseworthy, Jessie, Holly O’neill, Jane Pope, Melissa Reid, Noelle Stanford, Lauren Taylor, Nicole Torraville, Paula Whitten, Spencer Wilkins and Keisha Younge.
Joining Stanford on the coaching staff are assistant Paul Mullett and manager Geena Oxford.