The Canada West quarter-finals proved to be the end of the line for the UFV Cascades women’s soccer team.
After a 1-0 win over the Lethbridge Pronghorns on the opening day of the playoffs on Oct. 25, the Cascades battled hard but ultimately fell 1-0 to the Trinity Western Spartans on Saturday to close the book on 2017.
The Spartans scored in the 76th minute to earn the win on their home field in Langley, but Cascades head coach Rob Giesbrecht said he was pleased with the way his team challenged the fifth-ranked team in the country.
“I’m super-proud – we played against a good team tonight, and we battled hard and we frustrated them,” Rob Giesbrecht said afterward.
“We gave it our all, and we can walk off this park proud – heads up, shoulders back. I asked the girls to give everything they had, and they did.”
The Spartans had defeated the Cascades in decisive fashion in both regular-season match-ups – 5-0 on Oct. 6 in Langley, and 4-0 on Oct. 8 in Abbotsford.
TWU outshot the Cascades 8-1 in the second half and 14-4 in the game, but UFV had a close call in the 62nd minute when Zacharuk sent a high-arcing cross into the path of Mackenzie Toop.
The rookie midfielder knocked the ball down, but wasn’t able to get another touch before Trinity keeper Christina Olivierio smothered it.
The Spartans finally cracked the Cascades’ defence in the 76th.
Harold leaped to her left to push a Spartans shot just wide of the far post, but Danae Derksen was there to send the ball back into the centre of the box for Hutchinson to finish from point-blank range.
“It’s a good learning experience, again, as most of the year has been,” Giesbrecht said.
In the post-season you don’t want to learn lessons, you want to win games, so it is disappointing to walk out here and our season ends tonight.
“The shot totals might be heavy the one way (14-4 in favour of TWU), but they didn’t get that many chances. We were looking to be a bit better in the final third to give ourselves a chance, but I think we spent so much time defending, it was tough.”
For more on the team, visit ufvcascades.ca.