Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Jockeying at the top of the Prairie Division table adds intrigue to the final weekend of the Canada West women's soccer regular season.
The MacEwan Griffins control their own destiny, sitting in first with a 9-2-1 record, three points ahead of Saskatchewan (8-3-1) and four up on Calgary (7-2-3).
Realistically, one win out of road games at Calgary on Saturday (12 p.m.) and at Lethbridge (1-11-0) on Sunday (12 p.m., both Canada West TV) would lock up top spot since MacEwan holds the first tiebreaker (head-to-head) against Saskatchewan.
The Huskies have matches at Winnipeg (0-8-4) and Manitoba (4-8-0) on those same days, while Calgary's weekend also includes a match vs. Alberta (4-5-3) on Sunday.
"It's a little bit of a race to the finish line here in terms of seeding, so these games are very important in that sense," said MacEwan head coach Dean Cordeiro. "We control our own destiny, so we're going to take it one game at a time.
"Our focus will always be on that first game Saturday and then we'll quickly switch gears to prepare for a Lethbridge team that will be ready for us on the Sunday, for sure."
Cordeiro and his team will be trying to take care of business on Saturday, though, against a tough Dinos squad that gave them a solid test back on Sept. 10 (a 1-0 Griffins' triumph at Clarke Stadium).
"Every time we play U of C, it's a pretty big rivalry over the last few years," said Cordeiro. "There are so many familiar faces on the pitch and also with their staff. Every game's a battle, every game the margins are small. They're always very exciting games."
Calgary head coach Diogo Raposo used to be on Cordeiro's MacEwan staff, while several Griffins have come out of Raposo's Calgary Blizzard program, including Grace Mwasalla, Abbey Wright, Nicole Noble, Bryn Mortensen and Kate Prince.
Adding further intrigue in recent matches between the teams, former Griffins' star Sofia DiGiacomo, who was a part of MacEwan's 2021 U SPORTS national championship team, now plays for the Dinos.
Despite all of that familiarity, it will be business as usual for the Griffins. Just a match that they're looking for three points out of.
"Fortunately, we got the result earlier this season, but it was a game that could have gone either way. We need to be at our best playing at their home venue. They're going to be ready.
"We're going to approach the game much like we did the first one with the attitude of playing front-foot football and getting on them early."
