The Olds College women's soccer team had a tough break during the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) women's soccer championship.
The Broncos didn't make the playoffs after losing 3-0 to the Grande Prairie Regional College Wolves on Friday, Oct. 27. The Wolves went on to win the gold after getting by NAIT 2-1 in the final on Oct. 29.
Broncos head coach Macky Singh says his team did well considering they had "a couple of challenges" going into the Friday game.
Their captain and leader Jasmine Flett broke her foot while scrimmaging with the men's team on Tuesday, Oct. 24.
"So when you lose your leader, captain and centreback, that makes it a bit of a challenge," Singh says.
Also on that day, another player was unable to play due to illness.
"She had a fever of 103 degrees so she couldn't play as well and she was my other defender," he says.
"So when you have two of your big players out you have to move players around and make it work, so that made it a challenge. There were a lot of players playing out of position to make it work."
In addition, a couple of other players were playing with injuries.
"But you know, that's part of football and that's something you've got to accept and work it through," Singh says. "We had a gameplan and we stuck to a gameplan that we created for the game and the majority of the time it worked."
He notes one of the goals the Wolves scored occurred on a deflection.
"You can't really do much when the ball hits somebody and the keeper goes one way and the ball goes the other. It is what it is."
The third goal was scored when the team pushed to try and score at least one of their own.
"It was a given goal anyway because basically, I pushed all the players forward. Losing 2-nil, 3-nil doesn't make any difference anyway," Singh says.
Nonetheless, Singh is proud of the Broncos.
"They performed really well with all the challenges we faced," he says.
Besides, Singh says the team improved this year over last year. Last year they won five games and drew one. This year they won six games and drew one and they scored more goals.
"So there's a lot of positives, going forward. So I can't fault what the players have done. It's a shame we didn't get into the semis, but it's something that we are going to continue building and hopefully next year we can go one better," he says.
The championships marked the end of the ACAC outdoor soccer season. Singh says the futsal (indoor) season will begin shortly and begin in earnest in January.
"I can't fault what the players have done. It's a shame we didn't get into the semis but it's something that we are going to continue building and hopefully next year we can go one better."MACKY SINGHHEAD COACH
