Ottawa to play for CIS bronze after falling to Trinity Western

(Photo credit Stephane Gaudreau)

QUEBEC CITY (CIS) – The Trinity Western Spartans have a chance on Sunday to become the first university in history to win the Glady Bean Memorial Trophy three years in a row after beating the Ottawa Gee-Gees  3-0 in the first semi-final of the 2014 CIS women's national championship at Stade TELUS-Université Laval in Quebec City.
 
After a quiet first half, the Canada West champions exploded in the second half. Three goals in a span of five minutes, two by striker Krista Gommeringer (Calgary), gave the Gee-Gees no chance of coming back.

Entering the final, Trinity Western can win a CIS record sixth national championship, but first they await the winner between the other semifinal of the Fraser Valley Casacades and the Laval Rouge et Or. The finals takes place on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Ottawa will compete for the bronze medal against the loser.

Spartans coach Graham Roxburgh was glad his team kept battling. "The wind was a factor obviously and playing against it in the first half, I knew that if we could get into halftime at 0-0, we could get an advantage. Credit to my players, they hung in there and they stuck to our game plan. We have some pretty special players that did the job tonight."

"Trinity Western is a very good team, a very worthy opponent," said Gee-Gees coach Steve Johnson after the game. "We have managed them well for the majority of the game but there was a period of 10 minutes where we switched off and they punished us for it. They put the game away with three goals in a very short time period. I was proud of the way we played. We came out to play and I thought we conducted ourselves very well on the field. It's going to be tough, but we are going to come back and play for bronze on Sunday."

In the first half the Spartans controlled possession, but it was the Gee-Gees who were closest to scoring when in the 38th minute, Julia Francki (Orleans, Ont.) sent a powerful shot that hit the bar.

Trinity Western had flashes of brilliance, but the game remained tied 0-0 after 45 minutes.

The Spartans opened up the second half the better of the two sides and were rewarded for their efforts with three goals in a span of five minutes. First Krista Gommeringer scored her second goal of the tournament slotting the ball home inside the six yard box. Shortly after Jenna Di Nunzio (North Delta, B.C.) gave the Spartans a two goal cushion only to be increased when Gommeringer scored her second of the game one minute later.

Down three with 25 minute left Ottawa could not muster any further attacks.

SCORING SUMMARY:
TWU 0-3: 3
OTT 0-0: 0
First Half
(no scoring)
 
Second Half
1. TWU Krista Gommeringer (2) (Seina Kashima), 59th
2. TWU Jenna Di Nunzio (2), 63rd
3. TWU Krista Gommeringer (3) (Jessica King), 64th 
 
Goalkeepers:
TWU: Christina Oliverio (W, 0 GA, 4 saves, 90:00, 2-0)
OTT: Cynthia Leblanc (L, 3 GA, 3 saves, 90:00, 1-1)

Team Stats
Shots: TWU 19, OTT 9
Shots on net: TWU 6, OTT 4
Corners: TWU 8, OTT 2
Offsides: TWU 0, OTT 0
Fouls: TWU 5, OTT 12
Yellow cards: OTT (Delaney Rickert-Hall)
Red cards: none
Players of the game:
TWU: Seina Kashima
OTT: Katherine Bearne

Source: CIS