OTTAWA, ON – One of U SPORTS women’s soccer’s most successful dynasties has added some more hardware to their trophy case
They will have to wait one more week to play for the U SPORTS national title, but for the eleventh time in program history, the UOttawa Gee-Gees are OUA champions with a 5-1 victory over the Queen’s Gaels.
After cruising to the top of the OUA East Division with an 11-0-1 record, the Gee-Gees found their way back to the finals thanks to a 3-0 quarterfinal win over the Toronto Varsity Blues before hanging on for a 2-1 win over the McMaster Marauders in th semifinals.
The road to the finals for the Gaels was a little more complicated, a 10-1-1 season saw them finish just three points behind Ottawa in the OUA East, but it took an 82nd-minute Vita Nahin goal for them to beat Nipissing 2-1 in the quarterfinal before needing penalties to break a shutout with Western in the semifinal.
Ottawa got things started first as Nibo Diamini, who scored the winner in Ottawa’s 1-0 championship win over York a season ago, slotted home a 34th-minute free kick to open the scoring for Ottawa.
It held 1-0 for Ottawa into halftime, but five minutes into the second half, Jenna Matsukubo, who spent four years with the Gaels before moving to UOttawa, wired one through to make it 2-0.
Ten minutes later, the Gee-Gees and Gaels traded goals as Gabrielle Ferland found the back of the net for Ottawa to push their lead to three before Seema Sakran finally got one back for Queen’s to make it 3-1 in the 64th minute.
Just two minutes after that, though, it was again Diamini who, this time, stepped to the penalty spot and buried a dagger past Queen’s keeper Kirstin Tynan to make it 4-1 for the Gee-Gees. Ottawa would watch the clock wind down before Jenna Matsukubo would add one more in stoppage time to make it 5-1.
This win makes 11 OUA titles for the Ottawa Gee-Gees, adding to their conference-leading total. Both Ottawa and Queen’s now move on to the U SPORTS Women’s Soccer National Championship next weekend at Richardson Stadium in Kingston.