Burnaby’s Isabella Di Trocchio contributed offensively to help push the Trinity Western University Spartans past the University of Manitoba 6-0 last Saturday in women’s university soccer.
The win, one of three that improved the Langley program’s record to 9-1-2, continued a run that has the Spartans ranked among the Canada West top-two teams. Trinity Western jumped three spots in Canadian Interuniversity Sports rankings, going from ninth to sixth.
A fourth-year forward, Di Trocchio netted her fourth goal of the season by lining in a cross-field shot at the 41st-minute mark to make it 4-0.
Krista Gommeringer set the pace with two goals in the opening eight minutes.
Teammate Seina Kashima, a second-year Burnaby South alum, distributed the ball well to help create a number of scoring chances and rattled a shot off the crossbar in the 35th minute.
“I’m really pleased with tonight’s effort,” said Spartans coach Graham Roxburgh. “Obviously the early goals settled us down and got us into a rhythm. (Gommeringer) had two great finishes and it was good to see her on the scoresheet. ... I can’t think of one player who didn’t put in the performance that we wanted.”
The week had three one-sided decisions in the Spartans’ favour: a 5-0 blanking of the University of the Fraser Valley, and 4-0 over University of Winnipeg. Striker Ali Oliverio led all scorers with six tallies over the three matches, giving her 10 goals in 12 games. It earned her Canada West’s player of the week honours.
Trinity Western bumped its undefeated streak to 11 games and are in a showdown with UBC and UFV for top spot in the conference.
UBC, which includes Burnaby’s Kym van Duynhoven, picked up close victories over Calgary (1-0) and Lethbridge (2-1) to improve to 10-1 on the season.
The regular season wraps up this weekend, with the Spartans travelling to Victoria and Vancouver.
First place in the conference could come down to Saturday’s showdown, 5 p.m. at UBC’s Thunderbird Stadium.
UBC leads the race, a single point ahead of Trinity.
