#Adversity or #Anniversary: From celebrating 20 years of Cougar women’s soccer, to battling the elements and practicing indoors in a small gym, these two words are the best ways to describe the Cougar’s season so far.
Coming off a win and a tie in a sunny and +25 opening weekend at home, the following week found Calgary buried under a foot of snow... leaving Cougar coaching staff scrambling to find indoor practice space. With less than ideal preparation the team embarked on the long bus ride to Saskatoon, hoping that determination and heart would be enough to achieve some success.
On Saturday the University of Saskatchewan Huskies proved to be a very skilled team, beating the Cougars 4-0. Hoping the kinks in their play had been left behind in Saskatoon, the girls shook it off, heads held high going into Sunday’s match against the University of Regina Cougars.
With the game plan in hand, the battle of the Cougars began. MRU started the game with good pressure up top and some chances on goal. It was still early in the game when a poorly cleared corner kick allowed the Regina team to get up on the board 1-0. Unfortunately it was downhill from there. The lone goal for the Cougars was scored by Kelsey Kinzner later in the second half, but the damage was done, resulting in a 6-1 loss for MRU.
Film will be analyzed and the team will reflect on their play, with the goal of addressing what exactly went wrong, in hopes of answering the questions: What will the teams identity be? How are they going to respond?
The third weekend of the season will have the Cougars up against the University of Alberta Golden Bears in Edmonton this coming weekend for their first duplicate opponent matches after the restructuring of CIS West.
Perhaps the most annoying challenge will be sharing a bus with the MRU men’s soccer team as they too will be traveling to Edmonton (hopefully Taylor Lamb remembers the Febreze).
Blog by fifth year Donella Lockhart.
Mt Royal Cougars
