Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Her academy coach once told her she'd never play university soccer.
But here Kristen Skrundz is, about to enter the final home regular season weekend of an illustrious five-year career with the MacEwan University Griffins.
When she finishes at the end of this season, she will have played more career Canada West minutes than any other Griffins women's soccer player before her.
"I love looking back at that and seeing where I'm at now," said Skrundz, who will lead the Griffins into a pair of matches against UNBC (Saturday, 2 p.m., Clareview Community Rec Centre, and Sunday, Noon, Jasper Place Bowl).
Griffins head coach Dean Cordeiro brought Skrundz into the program in 2013, having no doubts she'd make a big impact. And she has – helping the Griffins win a CCAA championship in her rookie season, making their transition into U Sports seamless and captaining a playoff team the past two years.
"Kristen's had an illustrious career," said Cordeiro. "I'm so proud to have worked with her throughout this process. She will be our first true fifth-year athlete for the women's soccer program since I've been here.
"It's amazing just to see the character and how hard she's worked within her nursing program. She's just been an inspiration for this group. All the girls in this program and the staff really look up to how she conducts herself on a day-to-day basis."
Nursing is one of the toughest academic tests at MacEwan for student-athletes to balance the course load with training, practice and competition. Somehow, Skrundz was able to do just that and play five seasons.
"I never thought I'd be able to play. I thought I'd be done after my second season," she related. "And now to have played all five is crazy.
"It's really hard to balance (the course requirements), but you just have to not procrastinate and have great time management."
That example off the pitch is a testament to the gumption that she puts into her work on it. Among the hardest workers on the Griffins, Skrundz is a key member of one of the stingiest back lines in the conference.
"Kristen's instincts are fantastic," said Cordeiro. "She's been maybe the biggest reason we've been so successful as a back four in conceding very little throughout these last few years.
"Her ability to deny crosses from wide positions and her one v one defending is remarkable. She very seldom gets beat. Her body position and her decision-making as to when to separate the player from the ball is the reason why she's one of the top fullbacks in all of Canada West."
To say the Griffins have had a strange season so far is a bit of an understatement. They roared out of the gates to a 4-0-0 record to sit atop the Canada West table and earn a U Sports top 10 ranking.
Then they proceeded to drop their next four games – albeit against some of the top teams in the conference.
With six games left, there is still time to right the ship and even a home playoff game isn't out of the question. But taking care of upstart UNBC (2-5-1) will be paramount.
On paper, the matches favour the Griffins, who easily handled the Timberwolves 3-0 in preseason. But the visitors are coming into the game off a massive 1-1 draw at league-leader UBC last Sunday, which has everyone around the conference taking notice.
"You can't put too much stock into what happens in preseason," cautioned Cordeiro.
"What I do know is Neil (Sedgwick) is a terrific coach and they've done a very good job. They changed their tactics a bit to get a hell of a result versus UBC on Sunday, which is going to have them coming in with a lot of confidence.
"For us, we're kind of hit the reset button. Obviously, we came strong out of the gate and we've had a little bit of a setback. We're looking forward to how this group is going to respond."
FREE KICKS … Goalkeeper Madison Perry, who is unable to play her final season due to a knee injury, will also be feted as a graduating player this weekend … Most notably, Perry was the Griffins' starting keeper during their run to the 2013 CCAA national championship.
