The jerseys might have been new but it was the same old University of Calgary Dinos.
The Canada West champions defeated the host University of Victoria Vikes 1-0 in the quarter-finals of the U Sports national women’s soccer championship tournament before a loud and boisterous gallery Thursday night at Centennial Stadium.
The Dinos had to have replacement jerseys rushed by the manufacturer to the Island after a car containing their old jerseys was stolen Monday in Calgary.
“We didn’t let it affect us. It was in one ear and out the other,” said Dinos striker Rachel Barlow, about the incident, which garnered national press.
Barlow’s corker of a goal in the second half, past a fully extended UVic goalkeeper Puck Louwes, was the winner.
“She’s a tall goalkeeper, so we thought we would keep the shots low, but this shot did just the opposite and it worked out,” said Barlow.
The Dinos (10-1-3 in the regular season) avenged their lone loss of the season, which came against the Vikes at Centennial Stadium. How sweet that felt as Calgary moved to 4-0 in the post-season and advanced to a U Sports national semifinal date Saturday at Centennial Stadium against the Ontario runners-up and wildcard University of Toronto Varsity Blues, who blanked the Atlantic-champion Cape Breton Capers 3-0 in an earlier quarter-final.
The loss was hardest on Vikes fifth-year standouts such as Louwes out of Reynolds, striker Kiara Kilbey out of Stelly’s and Rachel Baird from Nanaimo.
“It hurts. It sucks to lose. But I’m really proud of our team and how it played,” said Kilbey, named player of the game for UVic.
“We fought for each other. I wouldn’t want to play with any other group of girls.”
The Vikes (8-3-3 in the regular season) advance to a consolation-side semifinal game today at 4 p.m. against Cape Breton.
“We’ll regroup like we did two years ago [when UVic lost its quarter-final game but rebounded to win its next two on the consolation side to place fifth at the 2017 nationals].”
The Canada West runner-up UBC Thunderbirds edged the Quebec-champion Montreal Carabines 1-0, while the Atlantic runner-up and wildcard Acadia Axmen upended the Ontario-champion York Lions 2-1 in the other quarter-finals.
Montreal and York meet in the consolation side today at 1:30 p.m.
The championship semifinals are Saturday between UBC and Acadia at 12:30 p.m. and Calgary and Toronto at 3 p.m.
The medal round is Sunday with the fifth-place game at 10 a.m., bronze-medal game at 12:30 p.m. and gold-medal match at 3 p.m.
