CALGARY – A 12th-minute goal by Taiya Scorey has the University of Victoria Vikes through to the Canada West Women's Soccer Championship with a 1-0 victory over the University of Calgary Dinos on Friday afternoon at McMahon Stadium.
The Vikes will play for their first conference championship since 2008. Friday's win also secured Victoria a spot at the U SPORTS national championships in Halifax.
"I'm super excited and honoured to play in the gold medal game. I've only scored two goals this year, so scoring in a big game like this is obviously super meaningful and important. Definitely a memory forever," said Scorey. "The Dinos came out really hard in the last bit. Honestly our team was extremely worried and scared but managed to hold it together for the win."
The match's lone goal came early and set the tone in a quiet first half. Sophie Murphy intercepted a Dinos clearance along the left side and set up Scorey. With plenty of space up the middle of the field, the third-year midfielder took one stride and drilled the ball into the bottom right corner past Calgary goalkeeper
Katie French.
With a 1-0 lead at halftime, the Vikes could play more conservatively in the second half and hold off a feverish offensive pace by the Dinos.
The first scoring chance came minutes into the second half. Surrounded by Vikes,
Isabella DiPalma managed to get a shot off from the right side that rang off the crossbar.
Calgary outshot Victoria 16-1 in the second half and forced Vikes goalkeeper Kayley Lidstone to make six of her seven saves in the final 45 minutes of play.
DiPalma would find the back of the net in the 71st minute when she hopped on a
Grace Moore rebound, but the play was quickly waved offside.
The Dinos hit the crossbar again in the 87th minute on a near-perfect header by
Isabella Burtini, while another header by
Jayden Berg off a set piece produced Lidstone's final save of the match.
The loss is the first for Calgary at home since 2021 – but the team will have the opportunity to rebound and earn their place at the national tournament with a win in Saturday's bronze medal game.
"I don't think we played poorly in the first half; we just had some things to clean up in the second. We kind of just said we had nothing to lose, and we have to go for it; we just got unlucky enough to score." Raposo said. "Tomorrow, we just have to play the way we ended the game today. If we start with that, I think we're untouchable."
The final day of Canada West women's soccer will begin at 1 p.m. on Saturday at McMahon Stadium with the bronze medal game. The championship banner will be handed out after the gold medal game, starting at 4 p.m.
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