Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Four games into the season and the MacEwan Griffins women's soccer team already has had nine players register at least one point.
They've also had a different player step up in each game to earn team MVP honours.
Grace Mwasalla. Hannah Harper. Sophie Lavallee. Amelia Russo.
Who will be next?
On a team that could be the deepest the program has seen since joining Canada West in 2014, anyone is capable of playing hero on any given day.
The Griffins (2-1-1) hit the road this weekend for games at Manitoba (1-3-0) on Saturday and at Winnipeg (0-4-0) on Sunday (both 12 p.m. MT, Canada West TV).
"When everybody's getting love (and recognition), that's a good, healthy team environment," said Griffins head coach Dean Cordeiro. "You've got to give it to those who've earned it. Sometimes it is the same individuals who've earned it on the day. But it's really nice early on, in particular, that love is getting spread around.
"Four different players of the game in our first four games. We'll see if we can keep that trend going here."
The Griffins only used six of the same starters that played against Calgary last Saturday in Sunday's match vs. Lethbridge. At half-time, they made six substitutions and kept the energy flying out there in a 6-1 over the Pronghorns.
"Regardless of what's happening, there's no real need to have tired legs at any point of time," said Cordeiro. "We want to flip the script and have fresh legs versus tired legs whenever possible. We saw five lineup changes from Saturday to Sunday and it gave us a spark. We had players go in there, who were ready and took care of business.
"I think (our scoring) is going to be by committee. The team's deep and talented. When it's done that way, it's really hard to lock in on one or two players to shut them down. This team has shown that on any given day it's somebody else stepping up and that's what's going to make this team very difficult to stop."
Although they've already played four games, Manitoba will just be holding their home opener on Saturday, so the Griffins know they'll need to be ready.
But they've got momentum on their side from a dominant performance against Lethbridge and will look to keep it rolling.
"We've got to just keep playing our game," said Cordeiro. "Little by little, we're finding what's working, what's not. We have some great partnerships, players have gotten a lot of action. It's just us worrying about us.
"For me, the team is a very good place, we're playing very well, so it's just a matter of execution and making sure they're understanding how we want to attack each game plan."