Sierra Leung got Simon Fraser University off to a winning start.
The Clan Sophomore midfielder scored a pair of goals to give the SFU women’s soccer team a 2-0 victory over Douglas College in an exhibition season-opening game Thursday on Terry Fox Field.
The Clan closed out the NCAA Division II season last year, losing 10 straight games but second-year head coach Annie Hamel brought in 10 new players to work with the 11 returning players.
“The most impressive thing for me tonight is that I played everybody a lot of minutes and I don’t feel like it mattered who was on the pitch, there was never a drop off,” said Hamel in a Clan press release. “I played a lot of players in different positions and I don’t think it mattered. They have come together and it doesn’t matter who and it doesn’t matter where. The job was getting done.”
Leung scored both goals for the Clan in the opening half, matching her goal total for all of last season.
Senior midfielder Karm Jawandha set up both goals in the 22nd and 30th minutes.
“(Leung) is a player who can be excellent. … I think sometimes she is her worst enemy confidence-wise and she tries to over think things. But tonight she was excellent,” said Hamel.
Priya Sandhu and Simone Tessler shared in the shutout. Sandhu was forced to make several difficult saves early in the contest.
“The technical stuff is a work in progress a week into preseason but they are picking things up quickly,” said Hamel. “Defensively, we made some mistakes and didn’t get exposed, so we certainly need to fine tune that.”
Although the Clan did not score in the second half the team hit the post and cross bar on several occasions with freshman forward Krystiana Corrado and sophomore midfielder Mikaela Guerreiro enjoying the best opportunities to score.
“I really liked our pace and our ability to push the ball forward,” added Hamel. “Our attacking movement and creativity was excellent and we really should have scored more.”
Simon Fraser will play another exhibition game at the University of the Fraser Valley today (Sept. 2).
The team will play a non-conference home match against Humboldt State University on Saturday, Sept. 5. Game time is 5 p.m.
