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UFV Cascades women’s soccer earn second straight draw

Smoke postpones Sunday’s home game, men drop two on the road
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UFV Cascades midfielder Jessica Fennell pushes the ball forward against the Mount Royal Cougars on Friday (Sept. 9). (Jordie Arthur/UFV Cascades)

The UFV Cascades women’s soccer team’s two game unbeaten run was not stopped by an opponent, but by poor air quality.

Sunday’s (Sept. 11) game at Abbotsford’s Rotary Stadium against the Lethbridge Pronghorns was postponed due to air conditions being “very high risk” at kickoff time.

A large fire near Hope blanketed much of the eastern Fraser Valley in smoke.

The women kicked off the weekend by playing the Mount Royal Cougars to a 1-1 draw on Friday (Sept. 9) at the MRC Sports Complex.

The Cougars opened the scoring at 5:06 and that goal held for close to 31 minutes before UFV’s Luciana Andrews scored her first of the year to tie the game up. Jasdeep Dhaliwal drew the assist on Andrews first goal this season.

Both goalies shut the door in the second half and the 1-1 tie remained. UFV out shot MRU 10-6 and collected eight corners, but were unable to pull ahead.

“I think every single person on the team needs to step it up just that little bit more, but overall we all did a good job at putting in the effort and getting stuck in especially in the second half” commented Cascades midfielder Hannah Gamble post game.”At the end of the day, every single team that we’re going to play is a tough team, and we need to put in the work and grind it out.”

The women have now posted two straight draws after opening with a loss to UBC. The team will spend the next two weekends on the road in Saskatchewan, Kelowna and Kamloops. They return home on Sept. 30 to host UBC.

The UFV Cascades men’s soccer team dropped a pair of games on the road, falling 2-1 to the Victoria Vikes on Friday and losing 3-0 to the UBC Thunderbirds on Saturday (Sept. 10).

Victoria got on the board just over six minutes into Friday’s game, but UFV’s Trevor Zanatta scored his first of the season at 61:48 to even the game up. The Vikes replied at 80:42 to earn the win.

The Cascades out shot the Vikes 15-9 in the contest.

“Our compete level was really good all night. We fought from minute one to minute 94,” stated head coach Tom Lowndes. “We played well, dominated the game in terms of possession and territory, and we just needed to be more clinical in front of goal.”

Saturday saw UFV and UBC play a scoreless first half, but then the Thunderbirds exploded for goals in the 55th, 63rd and 71st minutes to pick up the 3-0 win. UBC out shot UFV 21-7 as the Cascades dropped to 1-3 on the season.

“I think in the first half we were pretty even. We matched them,” Lowndes said. “Unfortunately, the legs kicked in a bit in the second half because we worked so hard, and when they score first they are always a tough team at home. It’s not the result we wanted, but we’ll take some positives out of it and move forward into next week.”

The men hit the road for games against Calgary on Saturday (Sept. 17) and Saskatchewan on Sunday (Sept. 18). The next home game occurs on Sept. 23 when the Alberta Golden Bears come to Rotary Stadium.

For more on the teams, visit gocascades.ca.

RELATED: UFV Cascades earn split in home opener weekend



Ben Lypka

About the Author: Ben Lypka

I joined the Abbotsford News in 2015.
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