The Algonquin’s women’s soccer team began their season on Saturday with two straight home games on back-to-back days. They dominated both teams, outscoring their opponents by a combined score of 15-0.
In the last decade, they haven’t lost more than one game in a season. And the trend they have set over this span doesn’t seem to be fading with a perfect start so far after a 3-0 win today against the Durham Lords.
But their head coach for the last four years, Dom Oliveri, will explain that the score at the end of the game isn’t what is important – it’s how their players perform.
“In our program we have standards,” said Oliveri, “it’s not necessarily the end result that matters, it’s how we play.”
Although he admits they played well in their home opener with a 12-0 win against the Centennial Colts, there was moments in today’s game where he felt they weren’t upholding their standard of play.
“We played well today,” he explained, “in the first half, not so much, we picked it up in the second half for sure.”
If there was one thing they did right the entire game, it was their defensive play. Even the team’s strikers were stepping up to play solid defense.
“Even me, as a striker, I’m always defending,” said Vanessa MacMillan, who is currently in her third year on the team, “we are always told to play strong defense, and we’re a team that in recent years hasn’t allowed a lot of goals.”
Though they are told to make defense a priority, MacMillan flew through the defense and was left one-on-one with the opposing teams goalie and finished off the play in the 26 minute.
Midfielder Sylvie Avedissian opened up the scoring in the first and striker Breanna Humphreys scored the game’s final goal midway through the second half to seal off the victory.
The Thunder begin a three-game road trip on Saturday, Sept. 17 versus Cambrian and don’t return home until Friday, Sept. 30 to battle it out versus the Loyalist Lancers.