Showdown on the Cape
It’s still early, but Saturday’s matchup between Memorial and Cape Breton women could be a season-changer
It’s a matchup of the best two women’s soccer teams in the conference, a clash of two squads in the top 10 Canadian intercollegiate rankings, and Memorial SeaHawks coach Mike Power isn’t shying away from or downplaying the delicious weekend matchup in Sydney, N.S.
“A couple of wins,” Power said, “and we’re in the driver’s seat. We know this is a very good opportunity to position ourselves very well in the conference.”
The Sea-Hawks, 4-0 on the year and 10th in the latest CIS rankings, are in Sydney to tackle the Cape Breton Capers, also 4-0, Saturday and Sunday in Atlantic intercollegiate play.
The Capers are also ranked in the CIS Top 10, holding
down the eight spot.
Cape Breton has won the conference championship two of the past three years. Memorial interrupted a threepeat with the Sea-Hawks’ first AUS women’s soccer championship in 2014.
Cape Breton and Memorial finished second and third in
the conference last season, and the Capers beat the SeaHawks 1-0 in the semifinal.
“We’ve had this date circled on our calendar for a while now,” said Power.
Jessie Noseworthy, the reigning AUS athlete of the week, leads the conference with seven points. She’s tied with Moncton’s Alexandra Maltais with five goals. Teammate Hannah Rivkin has four goals and five points, while Jane Pope has three goals and an assist. Rookie Nicole Torraville has two goals and four points.
The Sea-Hawks’ men’s team has a win, loss and a pair of ties entering their weekend series against the 2-1-1 Capers.
Memorial registered a 3-0 win over the University of Moncton and played to a scoreless tie with UNB in New Brunswick last weekend.
The Sea-Hawks are looking to improve on, or at least equal, their 7-5-1 record last season when Memorial earned the university’s first pointsbased playoff berth since 2006. (MUN made it to the 2014 post-season by virtue of hosting the tournament.)
Jordi Slaney leads the SeaHawks with two goals.
Both women’s games have 1:30 p.m. start times, while the men’s team plays 3:45 p.m. both days.