Great Strides

LAC LA BICHE – The Portage College Voyageurs have made great strides this season but the next step is the biggest and toughest one to take: getting a win. The women's squad played an entertaining match against a tough opponent Sunday afternoon at the Bold Center Soccer Field, in a game that wasn't decided until the 86th minute. In the end, the Voyageurs lost 3-1 to the visiting Lakeland Rustlers but had nothing to hang their heads about, according to their head coach, Kika Mukuninwa.

"The ladies, even from week to week, they're improving," he said. "They're in every game, they have opportunities to score and even to win. So yeah, I'm just very proud of them. Even with injuries and challenges like that, there was push through so I'm very proud of the ladies."

Kyla Franks, Sloane Cannan and Sarah Mandeville scored for the Rustlers while Robyne Thomas replied for the home team. Player of the Game awards went to Tessa Generoux for Lakeland and Ashley Tweedy, who made several big saves during the game, for Portage. 

Mukuninwa believes the first three games of the season – all losses but all very competitive – can serve as important building blocks for his steadily-improving team as they prepare for matches next weekend against Keyano College and NAIT.

"The next step would be to play a full 90 minutes," he said. "We need to start strong, have a good middle, and then finish strong. Being a young team with inexperience it's how do you get over conceding goals and how you recover from mistakes but definitely the next step will be to start getting some wins."