Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Playing their best soccer of the season, the MacEwan Griffins head into the Canada West Final Four with momentum, moxie and motivation.
Just five days after the exhilarating high of eliminating cross-town rival Alberta with a 2-1 win in the conference quarter-finals, the Griffins women's soccer team will take on the Victoria Vikes Friday (3:30 p.m. MT, Canada West TV) in Langley, B.C. with program history on the line.
A win would not only send the Griffins to their first Canada West final, it would also clinch the program's first berth in a USPORTS national championship.
"We've done a lot of good things and I think we're ready to make that next step," said Griffins head coach Dean Cordeiro, whose team is competing in the Canada West championship weekend for a third-straight season. "For us, I think we've got a little bit of momentum on our side, as well.
"In this game, you've got to be playing quality football at the right time," he continued. "All season long we've gotten stronger and stronger. We had some ups and downs. But right now, we're on an up. We're playing our best footie of the season and we're looking forward to continuing that this weekend in the Final Four."
That upwards push has built over an Oct. 27-29 playoff weekend at Foote Field in Edmonton when the Griffins (8-5-1) survived a scare from Mount Royal University (4-6-4) to win 3-2 (4-3 on penalty kicks) and then upset favoured Alberta (10-2-2) on their home field with a goal in added time from Kaylin Hermanutz.
"I feel like we just all believed it was going to happen," said Griffins defender Jamie Erickson of the victory over the Pandas. "That's really what got us the win at the end."
Next up will be a hungry Victoria team that's without a berth in the national championship since 2012. MacEwan lost 1-0 to the Vikes (9-1-4) in a visit to their stadium on Sept. 30. But the Griffins have grown through several peaks and valleys since then.
"The bottom line is the regular season is in the past," said Cordeiro. "Now we're in the Final Four and those records don't mean a whole lot this time of year. The best teams on Friday will punch their ticket.
"We're going to look to make the adjustments that we see will be necessary to get that edge and right that wrong from earlier in the season."
Victoria tied with Alberta for the best goals against in Canada West, allowing only six past them in 14 games. They come into Friday's match off a 1-0 blanking of the Calgary Dinos in the quarter-finals.
MacEwan, though, is finding its finish at just the right time.
"Definitely when we played them the first time we weren't playing our best soccer of the year, so I think (our progression) is good for us," said Erickson. "This past weekend, we really showed up and played, scored some big goals. Moving forward, that's going to be huge if we can keep the goal scoring coming and play defence like we did last time."
Erickson is not only alluding to the last time they played the Vikes but also to the Canada West Final Four last season when the Griffins lost 1-0 to Saskatchewan in the bronze-medal match. A win there would have given them a berth at nationals, so there's no doubt the team's nine returning starters still have a bad taste in their mouths.
"That's been the talk of the team – how close we were last year – and we don't want that feeling again of being a win away," said Erickson. "Everybody that felt that definitely has it in the back of their minds how much more we want it now."
Cordeiro looks at that experience as a necessary bump on the road for a young team moving toward greatness.
"I'm a big believer that you have to lose before you can win," he said. "That was apparent last year. There were a lot of emotions after that game and a lot of girls now who realize that was a huge opportunity for them and the university and the program. We're going to be ready this year to ensure we can use that experience to help propel us to where we want to go this year.
"We're going to leave it all on the pitch and we'll be ready to go. You can guarantee that."
Trinity Western (10-3-1), who will host the Canada West Final Four weekend, will meet UBC (9-2-3) in the other semifinal. The winners will meet for the conference championship on Saturday (6 p.m. MT, Canada West TV) and will advance to the USPORTS nationals at the University of Manitoba Nov. 9-12, while the semifinal losers will play in Saturday's bronze-medal match (3:30 MT, Canada West TV).
