St. Croix has been backbone of Western’s run to provincial women’s soccer final | London Free Press
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Those are the qualities necessary to challenge for their first Ontario University Athletics title in 17 years. This is Western’s fifth trip to the final in eight years so they are flush with four silver medals.
“Last year was our best team on paper,” said Painter, who couldn’t realize it since the season was cancelled. “We lost eight seniors and this was a big turnover year. There were a lot of question marks, but some of the young players stepped up and the veterans have been awesome leaders.
“We’re a good defensive team and it’s a collective effort. We need that as part of our identity because we don’t score too much. We’re balanced and get a lot of contributions.”
Natalie Abbate buried the lone goal against Toronto and Western held Nipissing to a scoreless draw before the shootout.
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Both the Mustangs and Gaels will leave for Cape Breton Monday, but they have to determine the hardware and nationals seeding first.
“We have not played Queen’s in a provincial final,” Painter said,” We always run into them. There’s definitely a historic rivalry there. If we had to sketch something out, playing at home against Queen’s should be fun. This has been a great team to be around.”
If St. Croix continues her determined play, it could be a championship-winning one.
TOP BOSS : Western field hockey coach Jeff Pacheco was named the U Sports coach of the year this week. His team went from two wins in 12 games in 2019 to 5-2-1 this fall with the only losses to defending champion Guelph, who finished one point ahead in the division standings. Pacheco also won the national award in 2012.