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.

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.

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.

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]

RMC 2012 CIS Schedule

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

This Sunday afternoon, the RMC women face Algonquin College at RMC, and then will play the St Lawrence College women this coming Wednesday at 5pm, also at RMC.

Choosing the right University for a student-athlete

A little over a month ago, the first part of a series on University recruiting in Canada was posted here. Due to some real life events, the rest of the series was a bit delayed, and I apologize for that. Without further ado, onto part two.

It's one thing to to be recruited or to put yourself forward to a school, but choosing the right school for you is a really tough decision. Just how do you make the right one?

University student-athlete recruiting in Canada

When you hear about athletes being recruited for colleges and universities, the first thing that generally comes to mind is high school basketball or football players in the US being recruited by large NCAA schools with an eye toward winning national championships. The whole process is tightly regimented and bound with complicated rules.

In Canada, things are a little bit different.

Well, more than a little bit really.

This first article in a series about the transition from high school to university athletics will introduce the basics of how the CIS recruiting system works.

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 Men's Championship - Friday games

After Thursday's busy first day at the CIS men's soccer Championships, another busy day was to follow, with all eight teams seeing action again. The day began with the two consolation semi-finals and those led into the two semi-final matchups.

The consolation semi-finals featured the McGill Redman and the Toronto Varsity Blues in the first game and the McMaster Marauders and Montreal Carabins in the second. The semi-finals featured the Saint Mary's Huskies against the Alberta Golden Bears. That was followed up with the host Victoria Vikes playing against the Cape Breton Capers.

The winners of the consolation semi-finals will play in the 5th place game Saturday at 17:30ET, while the participants of the semi-final matchups play on Sunday in the Bronze and Gold medal matches.

CIS Women's Championship - Consolation Semi-Finals

After a busy first day at the CIS women's soccer Championships at McGill, the teams for the consolation bracket had been determined.

The first consolation semi-final featured the Alberta Pandas facing off against the Dalhousie Tigers. Both teams had been defeated by OUA teams in the opening games of the Championship, meaning that the best they could do would be fifth overall.

The second consolation final featured a matchup between the Laurier Golden Hawks and the Trinity Western Spartans, the number two team in the country. Both teams had been the better in their quarter-final matches, but both lost in kicks from the mark.

CIS Men's Championship - Quarter-Finals

Thursday featured all four quarter-final matches at the CIS Men's Championships being help at Centennial Stadium at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.

The opening match of the day featured AUS Champion Saint Mary's matching up against the RSEQ finalist McGill Redmen. This was followed by the Canada West Champion Alberta Golden Bears against the OUA finalist Toronto Varsity Blues. Cape Breton Capers, the AUS regular season winners matched up against the OUA Champion McMaster Marauders in the third game of the day, setting the stage for the RSEQ Champion Montreal Carabins to face the host Victoria Vikes.

CIS Women's Championship - Quarter-Finals 3 and 4

Yesterday, the CIS Women's Championships began in Montreal at McGill University's Percival Molson Stadium. After the opening matches both finished in close games, the final two quarter-finals of the day were played.

The third match of the day featured the RSEQ Champion Montreal Carabins, top ranked in the country, against the OUA silver medal Laurier Golden Hawks. This was followed by the host McGill Martlets against the number two ranked and CW Champion Trinity Western Spartans.

The winners of these quarter-finals will be playing each other on Saturday afternoon at 16:30ET in the first semi-final, while the losers will face off Friday evening at 19:30ET.

Last weekend at the OUA Final Four, the Laurier Golden Hawks played the Queen's Gaels to a scoreless 120 minutes before dropping the game in kicks from the mark. Today, the Hawks played the top-ranked Carabins for another 120 minutes. Coming out of the starting gates, the Hawks were the stronger team, dominating the game with their offensively-minded lineup.

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 Championship Seedings Explained

Since the schedules and draws were released by the CIS/SIC for the men's and women's championships this year, there have been a number of questions raised as to why certain teams appear to get easier draws than others, despite their lower ranking or finish in conference playoffs.

After several readings of the relevant policies and a lot of time playing around on a white board, I think that I've managed to figure things out and felt that I should share with the rest of you, as I cannot be the only one out there who was confused at certain draws.

CIS Men's Championship - preview

The 2011 edition of the CIS men's soccer championship begins this Thursday in Victoria, British Columbia on the University of Victora campus. All of the games will be played at Centennial Stadium in a single-elimination tournament.

The 2011 edition features eight teams, two from each of the Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, and Canada West conferences. The teams are the Saint Mary's Huskies (AUS playoff champions), Cape Breton Capers (AUS season champions), Montreal Carabins (RSEQ champions), McGill Redmen (RSEQ finalists), McMaster Marauders (OUA champions), Toronto Varsity Blues (OUA finalists), Albert Golden Bears (CWUAA champions), and the host team, the UVic Vikes.

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 Sam Davidson memorial trophy.

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.