The Douglas College women’s team will share a bus to the PacWest provincial soccer championships with the men for the first time in recent memory.
Fifth-year twin sisters Ashley and Hayley Melvin will get their first taste of the post season in their final year of eligibility this weekend in Squamish when Douglas takes on Langara in the semifinals to kick off the provincials at Quest University this Friday.
“We’re proud of what we’ve done so far, but we’re far from satisfied,” said Douglas head coach Chris Laxton. “We’ve had some really clear goals and this is one more step down that road.”
The first step was just getting to the B.C. collegiate championships, a feat that had eluded the women’s program for some time.
But the Douglas women changed all that, opening the regular season with a 5-0 start and then avenging a dismal 5-0 loss to league champion Vancouver Island University, posting a 2-1 victory over the Mariners on Nicole Fraser’s game-winner in Nanaimo last week.
“If we face (VIU) again, it will be a tight game,” predicted Laxton.
But first, the Royals will have their collective hands full with Langara College, which finished third in the league with a 7-5-3 record, seven points behind runner-up Douglas.
“(Langara) has the history and some good players all over the pitch. I think it’s going to come down to set pieces. They have two quick strikers we’ll have to keep tabs on,” added Laxton.
The Royals finished with a 10-4-1 record, just three points out of first place and sport a well balanced lineup that is led by defending co-captains Tiffany O’Krane and Kelsey Acaster.
Danae Harding led the team in scoring with a league-high seven goals, while keeper Rebecca Mainardi posted five shutouts and a 1.08 goals against average.
“We have tremendous leadership and everything I’ve heard is, ‘We want to win now,’” said Laxton.
The Royal men are no strangers to the PacWest post season, but still have some unfinished business to attend to, says co-coach Robbie Toor.
With bronze medals at the Canadian Colleges’ nationals in 2009 and last season, Toor says the team is itching to bring back the title that Douglas won in 2005, when he was a player.
With B.C. earning two berths to the upcoming nationals, it’s “winner take all,” he said.
“You win (the semifinals) and you get a ticket to the national championships. It’s almost as important as the provincial championship,” Toor said.
Douglas won five of its last six regular season games, including last weekend’s 2-1 in Nanaimo.
In that game, Dorian Colopisis and Jayden Sandhu, with the game-winner in the final 15 minutes, scored for Douglas.
The Royals finished safely in second place to the Mariners with a regular-season record of 8-4-3.
“What I liked about the final third of our season was we went down a goal in three of our games and got through the adversity,” Toor said. “It’s all about finding that grove and peaking at the right time.”
Last week’s player of the week, Spencer Deboice, and Burnaby’s Mark Baldisimo led the team with eight and five goals, respectively.
