Spartans win third Canada West women's soccer banner

by Scott Stewart, TWU Sports Info

Photo courtesy Tribity Western U Athletics: The Trinity Western Spartans won the 2009 Canada West women's soccer championship with a win over UBC

LANGLEY, B.C. - Trinity Western forward Nikki Wright's (Cloverdale, B.C.) scored the only goal of the match, and her third in two days, to lead the No. 2 Spartans to a Canada West gold medal with a 1-0 win over the No. 9 UBC Thunderbirds Saturday night at TWU's Langley campus.

The win give the Spartans their third Canada West title in six years and sends the defending CIS champions back to the national tournament as the number one seed out of Canada West. The Thunderbirds, whose last Canada West title was in 2007, will advance to the CIS tournament as the Canada West No. 2 seed.

UBC-TWU CWUAA women's soccer final

"UBC is an excellent team with great veterans and we knew it was going to be a battle and would probably end up being a one goal game. And tonight we were on the right end of the one goal game," commented TWU head coach Graham Roxburgh. "It is great to go into such a big tournament coming off the high of a win. We didn't play well last night and we bounced back as a whole group tonight after being a little bit shaky last night. We talked about our goal for tonight that we had to play well and we knew that if we played well that we would be in good shape."

The second-year forward scored the lone goal of the match in the 40th minute. Midfielder Rebecca Ferguson (Calgary) found Wright in the centre of the Thunderbirds penalty area. Wright turned and sent a nicely shaped ball past UBC's Jaclyn Dunnett (Burnaby, B.C.) and into the left side of the Thunderbirds net.

"Nikki is a special player. She has the ability to get behind players. She can finish and she is not afraid to take things on in the box. Even tonight she did the work rate that we needed defensively when we were a little under pressure. She demonstrated exactly what we wanted our team to do: play with passion, play with intensity and play with intelligence," commented Roxburgh on his All-Canadian forward.

The match was an evenly played contest with both teams making key plays to break up their opponent's offensive opportunities. The Spartans finished with a six to five edge in total shots and a six to four edge in corner kicks.

TWU 'keeper Kristen Funk (Calgary) made one save to earn the win but did a quality job of controlling the penalty area. "I thought Kristen did an excellent job tonight," commented TWU head coach Graham Roxburgh. While the Thunderbirds Dunnett made two saves in the loss.

As the No. 1 Canada West seed TWU will open the CIS championship against the AUS No. 2 seed on Thursday morning at 11:00 a.m. EST. The Spartans are on the same side of the draw as OUA No. 2 and AUS No. 1, who meet in the other quarter-final. The Thunderbirds, as CW No. 2 will open the tournament on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. EST against the OUA No. 1. They are on the same side of the draw as host Toronto and Quebec No. 1, who meet in the other quarter-final.

TWU has won the CIS championship in 2004 and 2008, while UBC has five banners and last won the CIS title in 2006.