Two more victories have cliched a post-season berth for the Trinity Western Spartans women’s soccer team.
The Spartans defeated the visiting Saskatchewan Huskies 2-0 and the Alberta Pandas 3-1 to push their unbeaten streak to 11 games (10-0-1) as they also secured a spot in the Canada West final four championships next month.
With two regular season games remaining, both on the road this weekend, the Spartans (10-1-1, 31 points) are in control for securing top spot — and the right to host — the Canada West final four championships.
Trinity Western is ranked second in the country, while Alberta entered the game ranked sixth.
Against Alberta on Saturday, the Pandas took an early lead with a goal in the eighth minute.
But Daniela Gerig squared things up in the 28th minute and then Sarah-Kim Bergeron scored twice in a six-minute span early in the second half to complete the scoring.
“I thought it took us in 25 minutes to sort out who was picking up some of their midfielders but Alberta is a very good team,” said coach Graham Roxburgh.
“But we persevered and the thing I’m most pleased with is that in games when we’ve gone down in the past, we maybe haven’t played the most intelligent.
“In the last 10 minutes of the first half and the whole second half, I thought we were very intelligent and we made good decisions and that turned out to be the difference.”
In Friday’s match, which was also at Rogers Park, the Spartans received a pair of penalty kick goals from Melissa Mobilio and Natalie Boyd in the 21st and 26th minutes, respectively.
The final score was flattering to the Huskies as the Spartans fired 29 shots at the Saskatchewan goal, including 19 that reached the goal, forcing keeper Marissa Wilford to make 17 saves.
Kristen Funk was in goal for both games for the Spartans, making a total of five saves.
