Six for big win

Queen’s tops RMC in Tessier’s return

A familiar face keyed Queen’s blowout victory over the RMC Paladins on Sunday.

After a one-year break from the program, Jackie Tessier made her return to the Gaels in the 6-0 season-opening victory, recording a hat trick in the process.

Even with her three goals, head coach Dave McDowell said Tessier has yet to shake off all the rust from her year off.

“Jackie would be the first to say she isn’t sharp yet, in terms of returning to full match sharpness, but she’s getting there,” he said. “To start off her year like, with three goals in limited time that she played was a very nice start to it.”

The Gaels dominated the first half of the match, outshooting the Paladins 18-5 over the 45 minutes. Tessier kicked off the scoring early, tallying her first marker in the fourth minute. She struck again six minutes later, doubling Queen’s lead to 2-0.

Second-year striker Tara Bartram scored late in the half, before Tessier completed her hat trick in the 39th minute to give the Gaels the 4-0 advantage heading into the break.

The second half saw the Gaels once again control much of the play. Bartram added her second goal of the match and striker Brittany Almeida wrapped up the scoring with her marker in the 80th minute.

Keeper Madison Tyrell had a strong performance, recording a clean sheet.

“It’s a good jumping-off point,” McDowell said about the win. “I think the team knows we need to be better in many areas, but I thought we were very, very good to start things off.”

McDowell credited the team’s depth at striker as part of the reason for the attacking outburst.

“We have a lot of players we can rotate up front,” he said. “We don’t lose anything when they go in and it’s fantastic to have those options.”

McDowell said getting the victory in the season opener will provide a boost for the Gaels heading forward.

“At this point, in what will be a very competitive league, three points is just a good way to start things off as we look towards our northern foes this weekend,” he said.

Those foes are the Laurentian Voyageurs and Nipissing Lakers, who the Gaels host in their home openers this weekend. McDowell said continuing to improve on their performance against RMC will help the team in the long run.

“We want to be our healthiest and playing our best at the end of October,” he said. “If we can keep getting a little bit better all the time, then we’re in a pretty good state.”

Tags

Gaels, McDowell, Women's soccer

All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Skip to content