The Trinity Western Spartans opened the home slate of their pre-season with a 0-0 draw against Haverford University.
The two women’s soccer teams played the friendly on Tuesday night at Chase Office Field on the TWU campus.
“It was great to play a different team, one that we have never met before. They are good athletes and good soccer players and you could tell that they were really excited to play out here,” commented TWU head coach Graham Roxburgh.
“I was not pleased with our execution tonight, we showed that we have lots of work to do.
“But it was a good experience for us and it was great that we got lots of minutes for everyone and were able to have people grow in their match fitness. And for some of the rookies, who were playing their first match in a Spartan uniform, we able to get the butterflies out of the way early.”
Haverford is an NCAA Division III school located from Pennsylvania.
The Spartans controlled possession for much of the first half and fired seven shots on target, all of which were turned aside by Haverford goalkeeper Kathy Prescott.
The second half was largely played in the centre of the park.
Rachel Sydor and Christina Oliverio split goalkeeping duties with Oliverio making one save.
The Spartans were coming off a 2-0 win over the Seattle University Redhawks on Saturday (Aug. 13).
Both the team’s goals came in the opening 18 minutes
Midfielder Jenaya Robertson got the Spartans their first goal of the season at 5:34 of the opening period when she slotted a one timer from just outside the six on a missed clearing attempt from the Seattle defence.
Forward Isabella Di Trocchio doubled the lead at 17:05 when she stole the ball to go in alone on the Seattle net. Di Trocchio made no mistake as she placed the ball into the right-hand side.
Seattle had the better opportunities in the second half but TWU keeper Ally Williamson was up to the task, stopping the lone shot on goal.
TWU is back in pre-season action when they had to Seattle on Aug. 21 to face the University of the Washington Huskies. They close the pre-season with home games against Western Washington University (Aug. 23) and Concordia (Aug. 25).
The team opens the Canada West season in Abbotsford against the UFV Cascades on Sept. 2 and play their home opener Sept. 16 versus the University of Victoria Vikes.
