Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – The similarities are striking.
A year ago, the MacEwan Griffins women's soccer team needed to be the last team standing out of a three-squad quarter-final pod, also consisting of the Alberta Pandas and the Mount Royal Cougars, at Foote Field.
They were, advancing to their second-straight Canada West Final Four.
This year, they will need to repeat the feat at the exact same spot with host Alberta and a different kind of Cougars – the Regina variety – standing in their way.
As the third seed in the Pacific Division, the Griffins (9-3-2) will host Prairie No. 6 Regina (3-9-2) on Friday (12 p.m., Foote) for the right to meet Prairie No. 2 Alberta (9-2-3) on Sunday (2 p.m., Foote). The winner of Sunday's game will advance to the Canada West Final Four Nov. 2-4 at the home of the highest remaining Pacific seed.
"Foote Field, it does have great memories from last year," said MacEwan head coach Dean Cordeiro, whose squad beat MRU 3-2 on penalty kicks in 2017 before ousting cross-town rival Alberta 2-1.
"It's just a similar script. Lots of work has to happen to get to that final day. Obviously, all of our prep and all of our attention focuses on Regina. Bob (Maltman) and Rob (McCaffrey) there have done a great job with the group and it's going to be a very good contest on Friday. We're going to make sure we're at our best."
The two teams met twice this year with the Griffins winning both – 4-0 in at preseason game at Regina and 3-0 in a regular season match at Clarke Stadium on Sept. 16.
MacEwan went 4-1-1 down the stretch in the month of October to wrap up the regular season with the best record they've had since joining Canada West in 2014.
Regina, meanwhile, went 1-4-1 in October, but they snapped a five-game losing streak with four points in their last two regular season games at Winnipeg and Manitoba to secure the final playoff spot in the Prairie Division.
"It's nice to have played them, so we know what to expect somewhat – and we've had some good success against them," said Cordeiro. "But it's playoffs now. The regular season is behind everybody and the new season begins.
"We have to continue on this upwards trajectory in terms of how we're playing. There's a lot of good takeaways here from this last homestand that we had," he added of a 4-1 win over UBC-Okanagan and a 1-1 draw with Thompson Rivers University. "The team's in a great spot. We're excited. We can't wait to get going. We're going to be eagerly anticipating Friday."
The Griffins were co-led in scoring during the regular season by Salma Kamel, Jamie Erickson and Suekiana Choucair, who all produced seven points. Their depth was spectacular with seven other players scoring and many others logging big minutes in defensive positions. Emily Burns finished fifth in Canada West with 56 saves in playing every regular season game for the Griffins.
"We have a lot of depth, so it's all about finding the right formula on the day to get the job done," said Cordeiro. "That's what we'll be working hard at this week in training.
"The fight and compete in our group – they're relentless. The girls have a lot of good experiences to go back and pull from – over the last couple of years, making it to consecutive Final Fours. We're battle-tested and we're ready to go."
