It’s crunch time for women’s soccer, as the Provincial Cup quarter-finals get underway today and Sunday in Victoria and the Lower Mainland.
The weekend begins tonight with a battle between Vic West, of the Lower Island Women’s Soccer Association, and the Peninsula Co-op Highlanders, who play out of the Vancouver Metro League. The game kicks off at 7 p.m. at the Finlayson turf.
On Sunday, LIWSA winner Prospect Lake takes on Coastal FC in a 2 p.m. start at Layritz Park, and across the pond, Surrey United meets Richmond FC and the North Shore Girls Soccer Club plays Coquitlam Metro Ford SC Extreme.
Highlanders coach Dave Dew points to 10-time defending Provincial Cup champion Surrey as an example of how tough it is to win the cup, and advance to nationals.
“This year they came third in the Metro league, which just tells you how competitive the league is,” said Dew who coached Gorge in 1995, the last time a Victoria team won.
Except for a few veterans, such as Liz Hansen, Mariel Solsberg and Stephanie Parker, the Highlanders don’t have the same roster as the summer team playing in the Pacific Coast Soccer League. The winter version includes UVic Vikes top forward Emma Greig and UVic rookie of the year Elise Butler, as well as Vikes who red-shirted or weren’t among the starting 11. The team also has some top high school prospects, including Belmont’s Lindsay Hargreaves, who recently accepted a scholarship to Nebraska for 2015.
“For the young ones, it’s about preparing them for university soccer,” said Dave Dew, who’s coach of both Highlanders teams, as well as an assistant coach with the Vikes. “For the veterans, it keeps them sharp, and up to training standards.”
Dew added the senior players are also able to educate the younger players, both on and off the field. On a recent trip to Vegas, their vehicle had a flat tire, and rather than call for help, Hansen taught her young charges how to change a tire.
“We call it life lessons with Liz,” Dew said.
The Highlanders play out of the Vancouver league because the sheer numbers on the Lower Mainland mean many Metro teams are loaded with university and national team players. Along with the national team flavour of Surrey, the Coastal side has six players who have won Canadian Interuniversity Sport championships.
The Highlanders finished fifth in the Metro League, playing their attacking style. They expect injury riddled Vic West to try to put the brakes on that, along with creating some quick counter-attacks from their own strike force, led by Rachelle Armstrong, a former CIS champ with Trinity Western.
