Two significant but unrelated stories of the summer have converged for the University of Victoria Vikes women’s soccer team, one to dim the skies, the other to brighten horizons.
The Vikes were scheduled to open the sa国际传媒 West season Friday in Kelowna against UBC-Okanagan and tonight in Kamloops against Thompson Rivers University. The wildfires and lingering smoke in the Interior have forced both those games to be moved to UBC.
UVic head coach Tracy David said she feels for everybody impacted by the fires, which is the first concern, and that sports has to work around the situation.
“It changes the mindset a bit,” she said. “It’s a neutral site but they are still road games for us.”
The sa国际传媒 West season, meanwhile, takes place in the wake of what many are declaring a landmark 2023 World Cup for women’s soccer. David, a former Canadian national team legend, is hoping it reverberates throughout the female game from grassroots on up.
“The World Cup was fantastic with so many emerging nations showing well and advancing,” said David.
That included the Philippines with former UVic Vikes midfielder Jaclyn Sawicki, who starred for David at Centennial Stadium.
“The emerging nations in the World Cup were such a positive for the sport but a scary thing for us in sa国际传媒 because they are actual footballing nations,” said David.
The world just got better as sa国际传媒 tumbled from Olympic champion to not advancing out of the group stage in the World Cup.
“The positive is the overall success of the World Cup will hopefully inspire more young girls to take up the sport.”
A lot of young female players already have, including the Vikes’ stellar recruiting class that includes touted in-coming rookies Sophie Olcen and Brianne McLeish from the St. Michaels University School Blue Jags and sa国际传媒 provincial team, their Island Wave teammates Abby McDonald from the Reynolds Secondary Roadrunners and Adrianna Hilton from the Stelly’s Secondary Stingers, and Makayla Peluso and Maia Broughton from sa国际传媒 Under-18 Premier Cup champions Coquitlam Metro-Ford.
“Five of our dressing 18 players will be rookies and that’s quite something and bodes well for our future,” said David.
The key returnees include Vikes captain and fifth-year Emma Skalik, sophomore striker Ruby Nicholas, veteran defenders Kara Skirzyk and Abby MacKenzie and fourth-year goalkeeper Kayley Lidstone, who started all 15 games last season with five clean sheets and 80 saves.
This Vikes team is built from the backs on out to the forwards.
“We have to take care of the little things, such as defending as a unit, and being more creative and finishing on offence,” said David.
UVic played two exhibition games heading into conference play, beating Central Washington 2-1 and losing 3-1 to Western Washington.
The Vikes were ranked No. 7 in the sa国际传媒 West pre-season coaches poll with the UBC Thunderbirds No. 1, Trinity Western Spartans No. 2 and MacEwan University Griffins of Edmonton No. 3, Calgary Dinos No. 4 and Alberta Pandas No. 5.
UVic’s opponents this weekend, UBC-O and Thompson Rivers, are ranked No. 11 and No. 13, respectively. The Winnipeg Wesmen are ranked last at No. 16.
The Vikes open at home next Saturday at Centennial Stadium against the conference No. 8-ranked Mount Royal Cougars of Calgary.
The UVic men, ranked No. 9 in sa国际传媒 West, are tentatively scheduled to open their season next weekend at Thompson Rivers and UBC-O but that could be subject to change. Home opener is Sept. 8 against Trinity Western at Centennial Stadium.
The UBC Thunderbirds are the No. 1-ranked male team in the conference.
ON THE PITCH: In the neutral-site game between UVic and UBC-O on Friday evening at UBC, UBC-O won 2-1 thanks to an 86th-minute winning goal.
