Women's Futsal Clinches First-Place After Seventh Consecutive Win
With three matches remaining in the round robin portion of the MCAC's 2018 Copa de la Paz, Women's Futsal secured their hold on top spot last Friday night after their 6-2 win at Providence University College over the Pilots. With the victory, the Blazers improved their perfect record to 7-0-0 for 21 points and will look for their eighth straight win tonight when they tackle the 2017 Champions at Red River College.
A big part of the team's magical start has been the goal scoring of U-Sports transfer, Camille Plett. The fourth-year former Manitoba Bison scored her 19th, 20th and 21st goals of the season on Friday night as the lethal finisher continued her amazing average of a hat-trick each match.
"It's nice to score but I don't always expect to score," Plett explained, "it comes from working hard to get myself into dangerous positions where my teammates can find me. I think it also helps that there are alot of other players on our team who are also scoring goals regularly so there isn't as much pressure on me." Teammates Marijka Yaschyshyn (7) and Esther Schwarzkopf (6) are also high on the conference goal-scoring leaderboard.
On the other end of the court, the team seems to have made it their mantra not to concede any goals. After beginning the 2017 outdoor soccer season with six consecutive clean sheets, second-year goalkeeper Lydia Balsillie launched into the futsal portion of the campaign with two shutouts in her first two games. In front of her, team captains Yaschyshyn and Naomi Klassen have been rock solid in their ability to organize their units and prevent counter-attacks or any other opportunities for the opponents to score goals.
A key task of marking the most dangerous scorers has often fallen on fourth-year Mackenzie Friesen. Aggressive in attack and on defense, the soon to be graduate has done a masterful job of frustrating her opponents and helping her team rack up wins.
"Marijka and Naomi have shut down every teams' offense and have both been laying in hard tackles and giving smart distribution," co-head coach Cara Isaak commented, "we've mastered several types of defenses this season and when we have called upon specific players, like Mackenzie, to shadow top opponents; they have really been unbeatable."
With three matches remaining in the round robin, you can count on CMU being in a great position to capture their first Copa de la Paz Championship when they step on the court March 10th and 11th in Brandon where Assiniboine Community College hosts the El Campeonato 2018; the MCAC Championship Finals in the sport of Futsal. The Blazers will have to wait a few more weeks to see who their first round opponent will be. One thing is certain that it will not be Providence. With a 4-2 win at USB last Saturday, the Pilots also locked up second place in the standings.
Print This Article
