Weekend roundup - Oct 29/30 - OUA playoffs

There was only one game played by a Kingston team this weekend, the Queen's Gaels women faced off against the Carleton Ravens in an OUA quarter-final matchup. Queen's had received the bye due to their first place finish in the OUA East, and Carleton had to play a mid-week game against Laurentian.

Carleton came into the game on something of a high due to their defeat of Laurentian by a 5-0 scoreline. They may have been filled with confidence at the starting whistle, but it took just over ten minutes for Queen's striker Jacqueline Tessier to burst that confidence by putting a ball into the top corner of the net to give Queen's an early 1-0 lead. Queen's dominated the run of play, moving the ball around, and not letting the Ravens back into the game. Almost immediately after halftime, Kelli Chamberlain put a chipped cross in that Tessier touched into the back of the net for her second goal of the match. Riley Filion finished off the scoring in the 84th minute on a tap-in from a Breanna Burton cross.

Queen's now moves on to the OUA Final Four this coming weekend.

OUA 2011 All-Stars - Men

The OUA women's all-stars and honours were announced on Thursday, and the men's honours followed on Friday afternoon.

The Kingston based teams did well in the awards with five players being named between the Queen's Gaels and RMC Paladins. The University of Toronto Blues and Carleton Ravens led the way with nine players being named between the two teams, fitting based on their positions at the top of the OUA East.

OUA 2011 All-Stars - Women

The OUA all-stars were announced Thursday morning for women's soccer, both East and West.

The Queen's Gaels fared excellently with third-year midfielder Riley Filion earning the OUA East MVP award and a first team all-star naming. Filion scored six goals this season for the Gaels and is a two-time CIS Championship All-Star, member of the Canadian women's summer universiade team, and scored the winning goal in the CIS Championship game last season.

OUA Women Playoff preview: Queen's v Carleton

The Queen's Gaels women begin their playoffs this Sunday afternoon at 1pm when they face the Carleton Ravens at Richardson Stadium's new north turf field.

The Gaels earned a bye through to the OUA quarter-final round due to their first place finish in the OUA East with a regular season record of 13-1-2, good enough to be ranked 4th overall in the CIS. The Carleton Ravens are coming off of a 5-0 demolition of the Laurentian Lady Vees in the opening round of the playoffs. The Ravens had to play this game due to their fourth place finish in the OUA East with a record of 8-6-2.

Carleton will be coming into the game feeling good about themselves as the Queen's Gaels were only able to play the Lady Vees to a 2-2 draw last Sunday afternoon. Having said that, taking a look at the games between these two teams and the way that they match up, the Ravens have a big task ahead of them if they want to get to the OUA Final Four being played on the weekend of November 5th and 6th.

University Men: Queen's Gaels 1, Laurentian Voyageurs 1

It was a cold and miserable afternoon out at the new north field at Richardson Stadium on the Queen's West Campus. The temperature was hovering around 5 degrees Celcius, and a light rain was drizzling. The Laurentian Voyageurs men were down for a playoff game just three days after their last visit against the Queen's Gaels, the two teams ranked fifth and fourth in the OUA East respectively.

The Gaels took to the field in their full gold uniforms, while Laurentian lined up in dark blues. Queen's lined up in a classic 4-4-2 line up with Dylan Maxwell in goal, Adrian Rochford, David Tom, Joseph Zupo, and Matt Kenny across the back (from left to right). Jordan Brooks, the Queen's captain, Henry Bloemen, Pat Zanetti, and Andrew Colosimo played in a flat four midfield, and Peter Christidis and Eric Koskins lining up as the strikers.

Laurentian countered with a change to the 4-4-2 lineup they had presented in Sunday's match against Queen's. They lined up with a 4-1-4-1 formation. Matt George started in goal for them, with Patrick Smoke, Cameron Brooks, Brian Kavaratzis, and Andrew Posteraro playing across the back. Daniel O'Connor played just in front of the defense, and in a midfield diamond, Stephen Fattore, Liam Dougherty in the back and Davor Alisic in front of him. On the right side of the midfield was Laurentian's captain, James Bond. Up front was Dieri Drame acting as a lone striker.

CIS Men Playoff preview: Queen's v Laurentian

Over the last ten days, the Queen's Gaels and Laurentian Voyageurs have played each other twice. Both games were hard fought, both were decided late, and both ended in draws.

This Wednesday, October 26th, they face each other again, this time in a sudden death playoff game, with the winner likely getting to face the University of Toronto on Sunday afternoon.

Playing each other three times in such a short period of time is going to give the two teams a good understanding of each other and is almost certain to cause a bit of bad blood between players based on the events of those prior games and the way that things fell out.

I'm going to take a brief look at the past two games between the teams, how they matched up, and what might be expected tomorrow afternoon.

Weekend roundup - Oct 22/23

The last week of the regular season came very quickly for the CIS soccer teams, with everything finishing up this weekend. On the line for the Queen's Gaels teams were playoff seedings, while the RMC Paladins were playing for pride, having been eliminated from the playoffs already.

The Nipissing Lakers and Laurentian Voyageurs were down for the weekend, after Queen's and RMC had visited them last weekend. Nipissing, like RMC, were playing for pride, but both Laurentian teams were playing for playoff seedings in the hopes being able to host their first round playoff games this coming Wednesday.

Weekend preview - Oct 22/23

This weekend features the final rounds of the CIS men's and women's soccer in the OUA. Several things are on the line for both Queen's teams and their players as the Laurentian Voyageurs and Nipissing Lakers come to Kingston to play against both the Queen's Gaels and RMC Paladins.

On the college front, there was a disappointing end to the season this week for the St. Lawrence Vikings women's squad. After their big win last Sunday, they held down the final playoff spot in the OCAA East Division, but the La Cite Coyotes managed to get by Fleming Knights with a goal in the 60th minute to win the game 1-0 and jump past the Vikings for the final spot in the OCAA playoffs.

Weekend roundup - Oct 15/16

Similar to last week, it was another busy weekend for Kingston based teams with two college home games and eight university away games.

There were also two college home games played midweek. Both Vikings men and women lost that night by 2-1 scorelines against Fleming, and in both cases had taken the lead early in the game, giving up the winning goal late. Carolina Parravano scored for the women, and Adam Wood scored the first goal of the season for the men's squad.

The St. Lawrence Vikings men's and women's squads both played their final games of the season, hosting the Centennial Colts on Sunday afternoon. The women won convincingly by a 3-0 scoreline with goals from Erica Routhier, Megan Hutcheson, and Jocelyn Sutton. This keeps the Vikings mathematically in the playoff hunt at 7 points on the season (2-4-1 record), but they have to hope that their two closest competitors (La Cite and Fleming) lose both of their upcoming games.

College Women: St. Lawrence Vikings 3, Centennial Colts 0

Some days, the weather is agreeable, others not so much. Sunday's final regular season games for the St. Lawrence Vikings featured a strange mix of the two. The temperature was mid-20s Celcius, but the winds were cold and astoundingly strong blowing from west to east across the field.

The Vikings took to the field in their traditional white tops, black shorts, and black socks, while the Centennial Colts wore an all-black kit with white highlights. The Colts had the initial kick-off playing from north to south in front of only a handful of fans braving the strong winds.

College: St. Lawrence Vikings v Fleming Knights quick summary

Last night, the St. Lawrence Vikings women's and men's teams faced the Fleming Knights in their second last game of the season. Both teams needed to come up with big wins in order to stay alive in the playoff picture. The women came into the game in a tie for fourth place (top four teams make the playoffs), and the men sat in fifth spot coming into the matchup.

The day was gloomy and wet, and the game times were bumped up by an hour earlier in the week to accomodate the expected weather, and to ensure that the games would be completed before the fall of darkness. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend due to returning home from watching Canada's World Cup qualifier against Puerto Rico in Toronto the night before, and I was a bit over-exhausted.

Weekend roundup - Oct 8/9

This weekend's schedule featured two college home games and eight university away games.

Both St. Lawrence teams played at home on Friday, with the men's team playing their first game at home after a rough 0-2-2 road trip to start their season. A goal with less than 10 minutes left gave their opponents, Seneca Sting, a 1-0 win on the day. This leaves the men's Vikings team in the difficult position of having to win both of their last two games to have a chance at the playoffs.

The women's team fared much worse losing 3-0 to the Seneca Sting squad. Two Vikings players left the game due to injury, one of their midfielders (#14) and their starting goalkeeper, Jessica Dodge. The women are in a three-way tie for fourth place, and winning both of their last two games would give them a good shot at the playoffs.

World Cup Qualifying: Canada 7, St. Lucia 0

Tonight, Canada played in St. Lucia at the Beausejour Cricket Field. The game was not televised, but Canada took control of the game early, and the (approximately) 25 Canadians there outnumbered the 200 St. Lucian supporters.

The game was streamed over the internet with commentary by Max Bell and RedNation Online's Gavin Day. Due to a complete and utter lack of television highlights, I decided to interpret the commentary and present a brief highlight package using... puppets.

Yes. Puppets. So, read on for "Fables from Canada's trip to Fraggle Lucia."

College Women: St. Lawrence Vikings 0, Seneca Sting 3

It was a fantastic day for soccer today with blue skies, some cloud, and lots of warmth from the sun. I left work to head over to the St. Lawrence College field for the 3:30pm kickoff of the women's game, and ended up arriving just around 3pm. Imagine my surprise to see that the game had already kicked off and was almost thirty minutes in already!

The Seneca Sting team was dressed in all red, complete with long sleeved shirts, and was leading the St. Lawrence Vikings 1-0 already. St. Lawrence was dressed in their standard white tops, black shorts (with white highlights), and black socks (with red highlights). My immediate impression on arrival was that Seneca obviously deserved their lead. They were controlling the play, moving the ball around comfortably, and forcing St. Lawrence to constantly chase the play.

World Cup Qualifying: Canada visits St. Lucia (Updated)

Tomorrow evening at 6pm ET, the Canadian men's national team (CMNT) will be playing their third game of the second round of CONCACAF qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. The game is being played down in St. Lucia, and Canada beat them in Toronto on the 2nd of September by a 4-1 scoreline. Canada won both of their qualifiers to date by scores of 4-1 and 3-0 (at Puerto Rico) and can eliminate St. Lucia with a win.

Unfortunately, the game is not being televised due to a lack of broadcast facilities at the source, but Canada Soccer will be tweeting a commentary of the game for people to follow along with. Rogers Sportsnet has sent down a small camera crew to do interviews and collect highlights to be shown later.

Weekend roundup - Oct 1/2

With a weekend schedule including five university home games and three college away games, Kingston-based teams did not have the best of weekends all told.
The St. Lawrence teams played up in the Toronto area this past weekend, with both women and men facing Durham College on Friday evening, and the men facing George Brown on Saturday afternoon. The men came away with two scoreless draws on the weekend, bringing their record up to 2 losses and 2 draws. The women had much poorer luck, losing by a 2-0 score against Durham College, dropping their record to 1 win, 2 losses, and a draw.

University Men: Queen's Gaels 2, Carleton Ravens 4

The game between the Queen's men and the Carleton men followed soon after the women's game finished. I had to miss the first few minutes of the game due to the need to get a heavier jacket. The chill of the first game had left me shivering, so I upgraded to my grey Toronto FC stadium jacket, which sheltered me from the wind and cold. The wind had picked up between the first and second games of the day, but the ambient temperature had climbed slightly.

I arrived in the 5th minute of the match, just as Queen's was taking a kickoff. Carleton's Andrew Latty, one of their strikers, had just scored, moments before my arrival. Within 5 minutes, Carleton had doubled their lead to 2-0 as a ball had been pushed across the face of goal and fired in at the far post by their centre midfielder Sam McHugh.

Queen's was dressed in yellow for the match, just as the women's team, but Carleton was wearing white jerseys with red shorts. The teams kicked off the same way as the women, with Queen's attacking with the wind, although it did not seem to be helping them at all.

University Women: Queen's Gaels 2, Carleton Ravens 0

It was a cold, windy day Saturday afternoon down at Richardson Stadium on the Queen's West Campus with a temperature of 6 degrees Celcius when I left the house. The wind was moving at a good clip toward the southwest, but at ground level the air almost felt still. The weather chased a number of fans away and there were not many more than twenty people in the stands at any given time (not including the non-playing players from either team).

Queen's won the coin toss and took the north end of the field for the first half – they usually take the south end to start. The Queen's Gaels wore yellow for the second game in a row while the Carleton Ravens wore an all-black kit on the day with white highlights. Interestingly, the Carleton team was the first I'd seen this year that was not sponsored by Adidas, but rather was sponsored by Umbro.