Martlets outlook for 58th season of soccer at McGill
MONTREAL -- The McGill University women's soccer program opened training camp on Aug. 15, in preparation for their 58th season. The Martlets are coming off a fourth-place standing in the eight-team Quebec University Soccer League.
Montreal (13-1-0) finished atop the standings last year, followed by Sherbrooke (10-3-1), Laval (9-4-1) and McGill (9-4-1) in the final playoff berth. The teams that failed to qualify for post-season were fifth-place UQAM (6-6-2), followed by UQTR (3-11-0), Concordia (1-11-2) and Bishop's (1-12-1). In the playoffs, the Carabins edged McGill 1-0 and doubled Sherbrooke 2-0 to capture the league title and went on to finish third at the Nationals.
McGill opens their 2009 camp with one senior, three juniors, nine sophomores, 12 freshmen and lots of optimism.
"We're definitely a young team with 21 players in either their first or second year but our objective is to finish among the top two spots in the league and challenge the heavily-favoured Montreal Carabins for the conference championship," said Marc Mounicot, who enters his 12th season as head coach with a 168-51-38 overall record in outdoor play at McGill.
"We will host the defending champion Carabins in the season opener (Sept. 10), so that should be a huge test for us and will determine the technical and tactical challenges ahead. It will give us a good idea of where we stand against them and how far we have to grow to be at their level by season's end."
Mounicot's coaching staff remains intact with assistants Catherine Lumsden, Jose-Luis Valdes and Andrew Olivieri, a former Redmen star who also played for the Montreal Impact.
Offensively, McGill has lost three-time all-star striker Magalie Kolker, who led the team in scoring and was sixth in the conference with six goals and nine points in 14 regular-season games. Other key veterans lost include midfielders Vanessa Salasky (5-3-8), Carolyne Pelletier (3-1-4), Kyrin Dhaliwal (3-1-4) and Sophie Joyal.
The bulk of the scoring this year is expected to come from the feet of sophomore Alexandra Morin-Boucher of St. Gabriel de Brandon, Que., and senior Cristina Di Caprio of Laval, Que.
Morin-Boucher tied for the team lead with six goals and was eighth in the league scoring race with eight points. Di Caprio re-joined the team midway through last season after a two-year absence to injury. She only tallied once in the fall season but found her scoring touch during the second semester with seven goals in the final five games of indoor campaign.
A strong freshmen class includes Joanna Sienko of Burlington, Vt., who earned all-state honours, Sophia Horricks from Vancouver, B.C., and Zohra Bendouah, a native of Algeria who is a transfer from the University of Montreal.
The midfield will feature junior Hannah Simmons from West Vancouver, B.C., and sophomore Laura Gibson of Bloomingdale, Ont. Both scored twice and added three assists last season.
Other returnees include sophomores Maggie Keating (1-0-1) of Peterborough, Ont., Kathleen Wakeling (0-1-1) of Edmonton and Anna Smith of Cambridge, Mass.
They will be challenged by a number of promising new faces, including Imogen Ginger-Jefferies of Surrey, B.C., and London, Ont., native Alexandra Armstrong, who has played in a number of national championships with the North London soccer club. Another midfielder to look for will be Laura Bland-Lasso of Toronto, who hails from Glebe Collegiate Institute.
The defence has lost 5-foot-9 veteran Tania Giannone (2-1-3) but will be anchored by a pair of 5-foot-11 twin towers -- Elizabeth Williams (2-0-2) of Edmonton, who has returned to captain the team in her senior year and sophomore Katherine Green (0-1-1) of Toronto, who captured conference rookie-of-the-year honours last season.
Also expected to see significant playing time are sophomores Claire Hooper of London, Ont., and Audrey-Anne Henri of Notre Dame des Prairies, Que.
A fruitful recruiting class will be led by centre-back Carolyn Bell of Vancouver, B.C., who will miss the early part of training camp as she will play for the BC provincial team at the Canada Summer Games in PEI.
Another promising young defender is Kristina Tzinevrakis of Laval, Que., who captained Dawson College last year, where she earned all-Canadian honours. Other new reinforcements on the back line include Julia Bahen of Surrey, B.C., Lauren Kipp from Victoria and Montrealer Juliana Just-Costa who played for Loomis-Chaffee prep school in Connecticut.
In goal, 5-foot-8 sophomore Anne-Catherine Huot of Quebec City has returned along with sophomore Shimone Slomowitz, a 5-foot-5 native of West Vancouver. Huot posted a 4-2-1 record with five shutouts and a 0.44 goals-against average in nine appearances, while Slomowitz had a 4-2-0 record with three whitewashes and a 0.71 GA average.
The Martlets have a fairly competitive pre-season schedule, which features home games against Plattsburgh State (Aug. 22) and Ryerson (Aug. 24), followed by road games at Yale (Aug. 26), the Old Four tourney at London, Ont. (Aug. 29-30) and at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. (Sept. 5).
SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
McGill Athletics & Recreation
514-398-7012
earl.zukerman [at] mcgill.ca