It was yet another busy week for us on the soccer pitch. The St. Mike’s women’s intramural team was fighting to advance from the semifinal against the top-seeded grads; in tri-campus action, we faced off against UTM in our final league match with a spot in the playoffs at stake.
Our SMC women’s team had been looking forward to the game against the grads all season, knowing they would present good competition. We made a slow start with several slip-ups in defense, but fortunately the grads weren’t able to find the back of the net. About mid-way through the first half, Laura Naples put SMC up 1–0. After that, the goals kept coming; Naples scored another, and yours truly weighed in too, putting us 3–0 up. It wasn’t until the second half that the Grads responded with a goal, but we followed that up by with two more SMC goals from Elyse Huhlewych, ensuring the win as the game ended 5–1.
Going into the final weekend of tri-campus league play, the St. George B and UTM teams shared first place on eight points, while St. George A and UTSC were tied for second with five points each. We, St. George A, knew we needed a win in order to stand any chance of making the playoffs. There was the possibility of a four-way tie for first, which would have caused the standings to be decided by goal difference. The game against UTM was physical and competitive, and we had countless opportunities to score but seemed to be missing by the slightest margins. The second half was filled with miscommunication, allowing UTM several scoring opportunities, but fortunately goalkeeper Kim Nguyen was able to keep the ball out of the net. It wasn’t until there were less than 10 minutes to go that Jasmine Choi was able to score, giving us the lead and ultimately a 1–0 win. In the game that followed, St. George B and UTSC tied, meaning that UTSC is out and that we play UTM again in the seminfinals next week.
The SMC girls look forward to next week’s final against PHE, where we hope to win another championship, and St. George A will look to repeat this week’s result against UTM in tri-campus semifinal action.
