OCAA and OUA response on student-athlete eligibility

As a followup to the recent stories about the CSA's de-sanctioning of the CSL David Rowaan of SoccerWire Ontario spent a fair bit of time recently talking with officials in the OUAA, OUA, and CIS trying to get a firm handle on their stances on student-athlete eligibility if they took part in the upcoming 2013 CSL season.

Weekend Roundup - Sept 8/9

The second weekend of September saw the OUA seasons continue, the OCAA season kick off, and a return home for local CSL team Kingston FC. The majority of the games took place out of town, in the Greater Toronto Area in fact, while Kingston FC had the weekend at home all to themselves.

In the OUA, RMC was playing the University of Toronto on Saturday and Ryerson Sunday, while Queen's played the same teams, but in the opposite order. St. Lawrence kicked off their outdoor season with a visit to the Centennial Colts in Scarborough on Sunday afternoon, and Kingston FC faced off against the Serbian White Eagles from Toronto on Saturday evening.

St. Lawrence College 2012 OCAA schedule

The St. Lawrence College Vikings released their 2012 soccer schedules recently for both the men's and women's teams. Both teams are looking to improve on last year's results, with the men finishing in 7th with an 0-4-3 record, and the women in 5th with a 2-4-1 record, and just outside of the playoff picture.

Both teams kick off Saturday, September 8th at Centennial College in Scarborough before returning home for a 3-game homestand beginning Friday, September 14th. Each schedule is eight games long with four home and four away games, playing each team in their 9-team divisions a single time.

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.

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.

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.

Weekend roundup - Sept 24/25

There was a lot of soccer being played in the Kingston area this weekend, starting off with the St. Lawrence College Vikings women's soccer team starting their season off against Loyalist College from Belleville on the Thursday evening. St. Lawrence and Loyalist College played to a hard fought 1-1 draw to begin the OCAA season.

St. Lawrence 2011 soccer schedules released

The OCAA released the 2011 men's and women's soccer schedules this morning. Both teams are playing seven games this season (rather than the prior eight), with the men playing four away and three home. The women's team is playing four at home and three away, with their first home game this evening at 5pm.

OCAA college season starts Sept 23rd!

This year's Ontario Colleges Athletic Association fall sports schedule was affected by a strike by support staff at the various colleges in Ontario. With a tentative agreement reached between management and the staff yesterday, the OCAA announced that their fall league sports schedule would begin at the end of this week. Modified schedules and formats are expected to be released in the next few days.

Steve Douglas, the coach for the St. Lawrence College men's soccer team, informed me that they would be picking up this weekend where the schedule is now, and then fill in games that have been missed. That means that the St. Lawrence College Vikings would begin their schedule in Ottawa on Sunday with games at 1pm (women's) and 3pm (men's) against La Cite.