QUÉBEC CITY, QC – The uOttawa Gee-Gees no doubt hoped to complete the triple, yet as they walk away from the 2022 season with two trophies and a bronze medal, they achieve a feat never done before in U SPORTS soccer.
On Sunday, the Gee-Gees defeated the Cape Breton Capers 3-0 in the third-place match at the U SPORTS National Championship in Québec City, claiming their third piece of hardware this season after winning the FISU Americas tournament in Mexico and OUA Championship on home turf.
“We’ve been away from home for 23 days in the last month; it’s been an extraordinary journey,” Gee-Gees head coch Steve Johnston told 49 Sports. “This team has performed and succeeded in a lot of different environments; I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
If there’s been one constant through the season for the Gee-Gees, it’s goals from Cassandra Provost. Yet, despite clearly playing through pain in the bronze medal match, she scored her 20th U SPORTS goal of the season, giving uOttawa a lead in the 26th minute that they wouldn’t relinquish.
For Cape Breton, as they did against the Laval Rouge et Or in the semifinal, they played on the front foot for the opening 15 minutes, forcing the Gee-Gees to defend and settle into the match while holding off consistent attacking runs from Aaliyah Rowe. However, after weathering an early flurry, the Gee-Gees took over.
With Katherine Delev in the midfield, the Gee-Gees held possession and were able to advance the ball, eluding any Cape Breton press, and on the opening goal, it was her quick decision which created the chance.
Delev first-timed a pass down the right with to Soumanya Bouyak, who found Provost making a diagonal run down the centre third before finishing the best chance of the first half.
“Really happy that Kat [Deleve] got recognized as player of the game today; she has been our best performing player day in and day out this season,” Johnson said. “We’re going to miss her a lot next season.”
uOttawa continued to attack in patIently built waves throughout the first half but didn’t find another goal until just after the hour mark when Delev supplied the ball to Olivia Allen, who went down in the box on a foul. Angelina Gendreau confidently struck the penalty shot down the middle, giving the Gee-Gees a 2-0 lead.
Precisely 10 minutes later, Gendreau scored from the spot, down the middle again to make it 3-0 after Ella Chase drew a foul on a hard tackle at the top of the box.
“I usually just try to go for power because I know a lot of the keepers have been watching us throughout the tournament,” Gendreau told 49 Sports about going down the middle. “We won in PKs at Western, so I try to opt for power because people know our tendencies, and the goalie missed both.”
With bronze medals around their neck, the U SPORTS season comes to a close for the uOttawa Gee-Gees, as they completed one of the most successful campaigns in Canadian university sports history, only losing once throughout the entire season’s 24 matches.
Meanwhile, the Capers bid farewell to the 2022 U SPORTS season after winning all but two AUS matches through the regular season and playoffs before dropping the U SPORTS semifinal to the Laval Rouge et Or and Sunday’s match to Ottawa en route to a fourth-place finish on the national stage.
The search for trophies isn’t done, however, as the Gee-Gees move on to the FISU University World Cup in China in 2023, looking to defend their world champion title from the inaugural tournament in 2019 before striving towards OUA and U SPORTS titles next fall.
“This season has been great, our core eleven has been awesome, we’ve regrouped when we’ve lost, we’ve been great together when we’ve won, so we’re very happy with the bronze medal,” Gendreau said. “We have RSEQ indoor soccer this winter, and then we’ll start looking at next season and the FISU World Cup, but we’re excited.”