The Queen’s soccer teams had a weekend of ups and downs.
The women’s team split their two games, falling 4-0 to the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees at Richardson Stadium on Sept. 18 before responding with a 4-1 road win over the Royal Military College (RMC) Paladins on Sept. 20. The results moved the women’s team to 3-2-2 on the season.
The men’s team played only one game, securing a 1-0 victory over RMC and moving them to 2-3-1 on the season
On the women’s side, the Gee-Gees entered Friday’s game at the top of the OUA East, giving Queen’s an early look at one of the division’s strongest teams.
In an interview with The Journal following the loss, Women’s Soccer Head Coach Dave McDowell said the matchup offered an important test for his group.
“I think that experience is really important for a team that is so young,” McDowell said. “They looked like a team that was three or four years older than us and had three or four more years training experience and soccer experience.”
McDowell said Queen’s struggled early in the game against the Gee-Gees.
“I think we came out, looked incredibly nervous in the first 15 minutes, and that didn’t help the start,” he said.
For McDowell, the loss also highlighted an area Queen’s has been working through during the opening part of the season: creating and finishing chances.
“We struggled to create a ton of chances and then to finish them,” McDowell said.
He pointed to the youth of the roster, particularly in positions where experience and decision-making can play a large role in creating opportunities.
“We’ve got some really young players and those are the positions that often supply or create those chances,” he said.
Two days later though, the Gaels responded against RMC.
First-year forward Meghan McDonald, ArtSci ’30, opened the scoring in the 27th minute before Erika Norris, ArtSci ’29, doubled Queen’s’ lead four minutes later. RMC cut the lead to one shortly after halftime, but McDonald scored her second of the game in the 64th minute before Sam Caputo, HealthSci ’28, added a fourth in the final minute.
Queen’s finished with 22 shots, including 13 on target, compared to five total shots from RMC.
As for the men, they also saw success against RMC with a 1-0 road victory on Sept. 19.
The Gaels entered the matchup looking to respond after a 4-1 loss to Toronto Metropolitan University during the previous weekend, where Queen’s led 1-0 at halftime before conceding four goals in the second half.
Against RMC, Franco Di Giovanni, ArtSci ’27, broke the deadlock in the 36th minute, scoring the only goal of the match to give Queen’s the lead heading into halftime.
Queen’s held onto the advantage through the second half, with goalkeeper Ryan Spaans, ArtSci ’29, making two saves to secure the clean sheet. The Gaels outshot RMC 13-7 overall and recorded six shots on target compared to the Paladins’ two.
The result gave the Gaels their second win in three games after also defeating Carleton 3-0 on Sept. 11.
Both the men’s and women’s teams will return to Richardson Stadium on Sept. 27 to face off against the Laurentian Voyageurs. The women’s game will start at 12 p.m., while the men will play shortly afterwards at 2:15 p.m.
Tags
OUA, Queen's men's soccer, RMC Paladins, RMC vs. Queen’s, Woman's Soccer
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