L1O: Kingston Clippers schedule announced (Updated)

Earlier this morning, the League1 Ontario schedule was announced. The Kingston Clippers will be playing 22 games this year, eleven at home, eleven away, beginning May 2nd in King City and wrapping up September 26th in Toronto.

Their home opener takes place on May 9th at 2pm at Queen's West campus field, Miklas-McCarney, in Kingston, but the majority of their home games will be played at Tindall Field on the main Queen's campus.

The full schedule for the Kingston Clippers can be found below.

Queen's Men's Soccer Coach hunt still on...? (Updated)

It's less than a week away from OUA training camps opening, including the Queen's camps here in Kingston. And yet the Queen's men's soccer team seems no closer to having a head coach in place.

Chris Gencarelli stepped down at the start of June after four years in charge of the team. During his tenure, he won the OUA East Coach of the Year in 2012, the year he led the squad to a first place finish in their division with an 11-1-2 record.

Queen's Boys 2014 Spring Invitational

This past weekend, the Queen's Men's Soccer team hosted their annual Spring Invitational tournament for U17 and U18 boys teams at Tindall Field on the main Queen's campus.

Twelve teams from across Ontario competed at this year's tournament, with eight in the U17 division, including two from Kingston, and four in the U18 division.

The Cataraqui Clippers U17 OYSL team and a Kingston United U17 team competed in Group 2 of the U17 competition, and the Clippers represented themselves very well on the day, despite being short on player numbers.

Outdoor Season is almost upon us... (Updated)

As the snow begins to melt and the grass (and turf) underneath begins to become visible and obvious, outdoor seasons are and tournaments are starting to warm up the turf in the Kingston area.

This past weekend, one of the last indoor tournaments took place, the Queen's High School indoor invitational, out at the Kingston 1000 Islands Sportsplex in Westbrook.

On the boys side, St. Pius X from Ottawa repeated as the boys champions with a 2-0 victory over Cornwall's St. Joseph's. Eight teams started pool play with St. Pius X and St. Joseph's finishing first in their respective divisions and a bye to the semi finals. St. Joseph's beat Belleville's Bayside 1-0 in the semis to advance to the final. St. Pius beat Pickering's Pine Ridge 2-0 in the semi finals on their way to the championship.

The girls side saw another repeat champion, also from Ottawa, as St. Francis Xavier HS won in a thrilling 1-0 overtime victory over Alliston's Banting Memorial. Thirteen teams started pool play with St. Francis Xavier, Banting Memorial and Whitby's Donald A Wilson capturing their respective divisions. Banting Memorial reached the final with a 1-0 quarter final victory over Smiths Falls, and a 1-0 semi final victory over Donald Wilson. St. Francis Xavier beat Bayside 3-1 in the quarter finals, and Pine Ridge 4-0 in the semi finals on their way to capturing the title.

Queen's West Campus noise exemption request (Updated)

Over the last several months, there has been an ongoing issues with local Kingston residents near the Queen's West Campus turf field, located out near Richardson Stadium (corner of Sir John A MacDonald Blvd and Johnson St).

This Tuesday (March 4), Kingston City Council (as part of their agenda) will be receiving a recommendation from City staff as to how an exemption for the noise by-law should be applied to the field.

CSL: Kingston FC - 2014 Kickoff

Yesterday afternoon, Kingston FC held their 2014 Launch Press Conference at the Queen's ARC in the Alumni Lounge.

The team made several announcements about their upcoming 2014 season, some new ownership interests, a new partnership with Queen's University, and some player news.

They also unveiled their new logo (seen here), a new update done by a Toronto based graphic designer, Jennifer Coghill.

During their discussions, they talked about their objectives for 2014 (and beyond), and what the new governance situation with the Canadian Soccer League (CSL) means for them moving forward.

FISU Kazan: Jackie Tessier in Poland, part 2

Jackie Tessier continues her travels overseas preparing for the FISU games in Kazan with a few more days spent in Poland and another game under the belts of the women's soccer team, this time against one of the top women's teams.

Read on for the second entry of Jackie's diary,  a special Canada Day edition, as the Confederations Cup wraps up in South America!

FISU Kazan: Jackie Tessier in Poland

The FISU Universiade games begin in Kazan, Russia at the start of next week. Ex-Queen's varsity striker and current KUSC OCSL Women's player Jackie Tessier is playing with the women's soccer team and has agreed to send in updates every few days, discussing her travels and experiences representing Canada on the international stage.

The Queen's Journal profiled her in this week's issue as a lead-up to her trip overseas.

Read on for her first blog entry.

Queen's Journal profile

Earlier this week, I was approached by the Queen's Journal about being interviewed for a feature in their final full edition of the year. I spoke with their sports editor Peter Morrow over lunch at the Mansion earlier this week. Their story was released today, both in print and online.

Jackie Tessier trying out for FISU's Team Canada (Updated)

The 2013 FISU Summer Universiade takes place this July 6th through 17th in the city of Kazan, in the Republic of Tararstan, part of the Russian Federation. One of Kingston's top female soccer players is hoping to be part of the women's team that Canada is sending and headed off today for the final round of tryouts.

Jackie Tessier, fresh off her fourth season with the Queen's Golden Gaels, and a third national medal in a row, left today for Burnaby, BC for a chance to make the final roster of twenty players that will be heading to the games this summer. She is following in the footsteps of Brienna Shaw and Riley Filion who played with the women's team in Harbin, China in 2011.

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.

Weekend Roundup - Sept 1/2

With the opening weekend of the university seasons now underway, it was fitting that the Queen's University Gaels would face off against their cross-town rivals RMC Paladins to start things off.

Over the last few years, the RMC teams have been weaker than Queen's, primarily due to recruiting and admission requirements at RMC, but this weekend's games really showed that gap. The games were both played Sunday afternoon out at the new turf field at West Campus, which is now the home of Queen's soccer. The teams will play their entire home schedules there, but still practice twice a week on the Richardson grass fields.

CIS: Old Four Tournament results

The Queen's University teams had a bit of a rough go of things up in Toronto this past weekend at the annual Old Four tournament.

On Saturday, Queen's was facing the Western Mustangs women's and men's teams, and were shut out in both matches. The women dropped their game 1-0 on a goal in the 78th minute. In the other matchup, the men were beaten by a surprising 5-0 result. As a result of the matches, both Queen's teams were relegated to the consolation finals on the Sunday.

Queen's 2012 CIS schedule

The Queen's University OUA schedule was released a few weeks ago, and features an opening weekend matchup at home with local rivals RMC on September 2nd.

In preparation for the season, the women's visited Quebec City to play against Laval Rouge et Or. Brenna Drummond, a new recruit from Seattle, Washington scored the only goal for the Gaels in the 55th minute, and Laval tied the game late in stoppage time for the 1-1 draw.^[1]

The men took a tour of New York State visiting the Le Moyne Dolphins in Syracuse, Hobart Statesmen in Geneva, and Cornell Big Red in Ithaca. Eric Koskins scored in the first game last Sunday to equalize, giving Queen's a tightly contested 1-1 draw.^[2] The next day, Queen's played Hobart, falling 1-0 on a defensive mistake.^[3] The men finished their tour on Thursday night against Cornell, falling 6-0 in the end.^[4]

CIS Championships - Finals

Sunday the thirteenth of November will be a day that a number of university athletes will long remember. Four teams played in the CIS Championship Final soccer games, games that would determine the university level champion of Canada in both men's and women's soccer. These games would also produce second place finishers.

The matchups for the 2011 edition of the Championships featured the host Victoria Vikes against the upstart Saint Mary's Huskies on the men's side and the defending champion Queen's Gaels up against the Montreal Carabins, looking for the first championship won by a Quebec team on the women's side.

Between the two games were featured a record-setting crowd, penalty drama, amazing defensive play, and some stunning goals. Who would lift the Gladys Bean Memorial Trophy for the women and the Sam Davidson Memorial Trophy for the men?

CIS Women's Championship - Quarter-Finals 1 and 2

The 2011 CIS Championships began this morning in Montreal at McGill University's Percival Molson Stadium. The opening match featured the Dalhousie Tigers against the Ottawa Gee-Gees and that was followed up with the Queen's Gaels facing the Alberta Pandas.

The winners of these quarter-finals will be playing each other on Saturday afternoon at 13:30ET in the first semi-final, while the losers will face off Friday afternoon at 16:30ET.

Dalhousie came into the game as the Atlantic Champions and the fourth seed overall in the tournament. Ottawa came in as the third OUA team, and the opening minutes of the game showed that the two teams were relatively evenly matched. The play moved from end to end with no really good chances as the two teams felt each other out.

CIS Women's Championship - preview

The 2011 edition of the CIS women's soccer championship begins this Thursday in Montreal, Quebec on the McGill University campus. All of the games will be played at the Percival Molson Stadium in a single-elimination tournament.

The 2011 edition features eight teams, one from the Atlantic conference, two from Quebec (including the host team), three from Ontario, and two from the Canada West conference. The teams are the Dalhousie Tigers (AUS champions), Montreal Carabins (RSEQ champions), Queen's Gaels (OUA champions), Trinity Western (CWUAA champions), Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks (OUA finalists), Alberta Pandas (CWUAA finalists), Ottawa Gee-Gees (OUA bronze medalists), and the host team, the McGill Martlets.

Today we will briefly preview all eight teams involved and show the path that the OUA teams would need to traverse to reach the championship final to lift the Gladys Bean memorial trophy.

Weekend roundup - Nov 5/6 - OUA Final Fours

This weekend featured both the men's and women's OUA Final Four playoffs.

The men's Final Four was played in Ottawa at Carleton University's Keith Harris Stadium, and featured the host and OUA East champion Carleton Ravens, OUA West champion York Lions, University of Toronto Varsity Blues, and McMaster Marauders.

The women's Final Four was played in Waterloo at Laurier University. It featured the OUA West champions Laurier Golden Hawks, OUA East champions Queen's Gaels, McMaster Marauders, and Ottawa Gee Gees.

OUA Women's Final Four - Queen's 3, McMaster 0

The Queen's Gaels put on a masterful show in Waterloo today as they dominated the McMaster Marauders in their OUA semi-final matchup. Like the York v Toronto men's game earlier today, this one ended with the losing team down a player.

I had some troubles getting the online stream going and came into the game when there were close to ten minutes played. The Queen's starting lineup was almost the same as last week's lineup against the Carleton Ravens, with the exception of Breanna Burton starting in place of the injured Kelli Chamberlain.

OUA Women's Final Four - preview

This coming weekend, the OUA is holding the Final Four round for both the women and men's soccer playoffs. The women's round is being played in Waterloo at Wilfrid Laurier's University Stadium while the men's is being played in Ottawa at Carleton University.

Today we will take a quick look at the four teams involved in the women's Final Four, and tomorrow we'll take a look at the men's Final Four.

On the women's side, the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks are the host team due to their first place finish in the OUA West. Joining them from the OUA West are the McMaster Marauders. Coming in from the OUA East are the first place Queen's Gaels and the second place Ottawa Gee-Gees.