The Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Women’s Soccer National Championship is right around the corner and everyone is invited to watch.
The competition kicks off on Nov. 6 with four games scheduled to take place and runs until Nov. 9.
“It's a national soccer championship, so we've got teams from across the country that are coming to compete, that are all part of the CCAA national conference,” CapU athletic director Georgette Reed told The Squamish Chief.
“On Wednesday and Thursday, there are four matches being played each day. They start at 10 a.m. in the morning, then the second game is at 12:30 p.m., the third game is at 3 p.m., and the last game is at 5 p.m.
“On Friday, there are three games as teams start getting eliminated; and then on Saturday is the bronze medal match at 12 p.m., and then the gold medal match at 3 p.m.”
The championships are being held at CapU’s Squamish campus following the completion of upgrades to the field.
“The [event] is held and supported by a different school every year. This year, our conference was nominated to host the championships, and Capilano University bid for the championships,” Reed said.
“Then when we took over Squamish, we decided that we would really try to upgrade our facilities and create a legacy from hosting the championships.
“We upgraded all our facilities as best we could in the short time that we had and worked on just being able to put on the best event that we could put on and really welcome people to Squamish.”
The Capilano University Blues will take on Quebec champions Aigles de Collège Ahuntsic in their first match-up on Nov. 6 at 5.30 p.m.
Head coach Dennis Kindel said he is “fully aware” of the challenge ahead for his squad.
“Our group is excited to have this opportunity and we are going to do our very best to make the most of it when we get to Squamish,” Kindel said.
“Ahuntsic is the Quebec champion and scored five goals in their provincial final over Montmorency, so we will have to be determined in our defensive formation to succeed in our very first game.”
CapU Blues took home a silver medal from the PACWEST provincial championship on Oct. 27, narrowly losing 1-0 against Vancouver Island University in the final.
It was a close game, it could have gone either way, but our team did us proud, and we're really looking forward to supporting them and watching them play on their whole home field and having their families and friends all be able to watch them compete so close to home for our national title,” Reed said.
The more the merrier!
Soccer lovers are welcome to head to the CapU Squamish campus to watch the games throughout the tournament.
“Anybody that wants to come and watch, we welcome you to come out. We have created a low-barrier event, so there are no tickets required,” Reed said.
“People are able to come and watch whenever they'd like to. We have limited seating. We probably have enough bleachers for about 300 people, but people are more than welcome to bring out blankets in their own lawn chairs and whatnot and camp up around the facility and watch the games.”
Reed said she looks forward to the event being a positive experience for all women in sports.
“We're just excited to be able to have Squamish as a host venue, and to be able to share the best of CCAA, women's soccer and women's athletics with hopefully players of the future, and for youngsters that are excited about competing at every level,” she said.
“One of the nice things about this event is it's really going to be about youth sport and female identified. So even if you don't have aspirations to be a soccer player, you could still be an official.
“We have 14 female officials that will be taking part in this event, and they will be the officials of the future for the new professional women's soccer league.”
To see more about the event or to check out the tournament schedule, visit the CCAA website.
