The Queen's Gaels will attempt to do what the Trinity Western Spartans couldn't quite muster in 2009, win an unprecedented third straight CIS women's soccer championship when the two teams meet at 2 p.m. today.
The two-time defending champion Gaels will have their hands full with the Spartans, who also won two straight Gladys Bean Memorial trophies in 2007-08 as this year's title game features the winners of the last four CIS crowns.
"We've won a couple of times as well before they did," said Spartans coach Graham Roxburgh. "Both teams have experience. They're good, we know they're good.
"They are very talented offensively. We don't know much about them, but they have experience, they are the two-time defending champions so they'll be ready."
And they can be lethal. "Offensively, we watched them put four goals past one of the best defending teams in the country in Ottawa [in the semifinal], so we'll have to be at our best," said Rox-burgh.
The Spartans' coach will have to get the best out of his sa国际传媒 West-champion crew, led by conference rookie of the year Krista Gommeringer as well as veterans Natalie Boyd, Tessa Meyer, Jilian Dietrich and keeper Kristen Funk.
"We just have to play the way we're capable of playing, play our game," said Gommeringer. "I personally haven't seen much of them, but our coaches will have a good pre-game plan for us."
As the Gaels will have for the Spartans.
"We're going to prepare and take care of our energy reserves and get ourselves ready," said Gaels coach Dave McDowel. "We're ecstatic about the opportunity to win a third straight."
Which would be a first for any CIS women's team.
"We're so excited about this," said Breanna Burton, who scored two goals in Queen's 4-1 semifinal win over Ottawa. "We're going to need the same intensity and focus that we had [Friday]. I think the biggest thing is carrying on the level of play we had in our semifi-nal. Just for one more win."
Meanwhile, the Victoria Vikes will face Ottawa in the 11: 30 a.m. bronze-medal game on their home Centennial Stadium field.
"We'll go into our bronze-medal game going for that third place and if that's all we can do this weekend, we'll be happy with that," promised Vikes keeper Stephanie Parker.
"Once a Vike, always a Vike. We'll definitely be ready for the bronze-medal game [today]. We have a lot of heart."
Vikes coach Tracy David expects her group to rebound for the matchup against the Gee-Gees after a tough 1-0 loss to Trinity Western in the semifinals.
"There is still a medal on the line for people like Steph Parker - we'll regroup," insisted David. "This is a good squad and this is who we'll be playing for, the fifth-year players.
"This is a resilient bunch and I have the utmost faith in them and we hope to come out of this with a medal."
CORNER KICKS: Both the Spartans and Gaels have three overall women's soccer titles to their credits.
They faced each other in the 2009 semifinal in which the Spartans won 2-1 (5-3 in penalty kicks). ... Bianca Jakisa's goal led the Dalhousie Tigers to a 1-0 win over Sherbrooke Vert & Or in Saturday's fifth-place game, the only matchup of the day.
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