CCAA Women's Soccer National Championship Feature
by ACAC Sports Writer Curtis J. Phillips
Montreal, QC - Since 2010 only one Canadian post-secondary institution has had it's name archived as a medal winner at each of the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association Women's Soccer Championships.
That team is the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology...better known as the NAIT Ooks.
Along the way has come three silver medals and three bronze medals.
Last year they were a runner-up on the podium position at the 2015 CCAA championships hosted by Fleming College in Peterborough, Ontario where the Ooks lost 5-1 to Cegep Garneau (RSEQ).
At the 2016 CCAA Women's Soccer Championships hosted by College Ahuntsic at Montreal Soccer, the Ooks came into the event seeded No. 2 behind two-time defending champion Élans de Garneau from Quebec City.
Ooks, who had finished the 2016 ACAC regular season with an impressive record of 9 wins 1 tie 41 goals for 5 goals against, while going on to capture their third consecutive ACAC crown and fifth in six years by beating Grande Prairie Regional College Wolves 2-0 in Edmonton, faced off against the Douglas Royals (PACWEST) in their opener in Montreal.
The Royals would open scoring at the 13th minute mark with Mikayla Hamilton while the second marker came off the foot of Royals Sonali Dholliwar in the 63rd minute,
CCAA Player of the Year Kassy Jajczay scored the Ooks lone goal with 14 minutes remaining in regulation.
"To be honest...flat out we did not play well and it's not the start that we wanted to the tournament," said Ooks head coach Carole Holt. "I don't know if it was nerves or what. It was really disappointing."
Relegated to the Consolation Semi-Final last Thursday the Ooks recorded a 2-1 victory against the Vancouver Island University Mariners with goals by Marissa Webb (7th minute) and Jajczay.
Players of the Game were Sidney Doblanko (NAIT) and Kaylee Dodds (VIU).
"After we lost that first game we had an honest conversation that evening to address some of the things that we did not do well that first day and the players came out and responded like champs. We kept it simple in latter stages of the game and closed it out."
Playing their third game in three days, Ooks shut out the Algonquin Thunder 3-0 Friday on goals by Kaily Mohn, Megan Lyons and Jajczay.
In the bronze medal match up it was the NAIT Ooks kicking off against the Royals again.
Royals Hamilton opened scoring (27th minute) with the Ooks Mohn tying the game at 55 minutes,
The game would remain 1-1 after 90 minutes.
After two scoreless 15-minute overtime halves the teams went to penalty kicks with Royals goalie Alexa Gazzola making three saves for the eventual Royals 2-1 victory on PK.
"We put them under a lot of pressure but we couldn't pull it out. We were playing for a medal but the final result of the game would not define us. What was important was our attitude towards the game and for us to see how we responded. We played well. Playing four games in four days at this level...four physical games...is a good test.
"We considered this a rebuilding year, so to place fourth in the (CCAA) is good."
Ooks had nine rookies and eight second-year players as part of the 2016 roster.
The GPRC Wolves, the ACAC Wildcard representative, opened their 2016 CCAA appearance with a 1-0 loss in penalty kicks against the Algonquin Thunder while in the consolation semi-final they edged the Holland Hurricanes 1-0 on a goal by Shelby Henley.
In the bronze semi final the Wolves lost to the Royals 2-1 Shelby Henley scoring for the ACAC Wildcard representative.
In the 5th/6th placement match the Wolves came up short Saturday 1-0 against the Thunder.
"We found scoring a bit more difficult as we were playing against better teams," said Wolves head coach Chris Morgan. "We competed well and there wasn't much between the rest of us and the top two teams. We wanted the experience and with a young team it was a good experience."