When it rains, it pours

Five years have built up to one moment, and in one dreary, rain-soaked evening, that moment has slipped through the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks’ women’s soccer team’s fingers.

After losing to the Queen’s Gaels in the Ontario University Athletics’ (OUA) finals on Sunday, the Hawks, playing at Molson Stadium in McGill University during the opening day of the 2011 Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) womens’ soccer championships, lost 2-1 in penalty kicks to the Montreal Carabins and are now out of the race for the gold medal.

Heather Malizia was finally able to break through Montreal’s stacked backline when she fired a shot off a Carabins’ defender’s head and into the netting to secure a 1-0 lead for the purple and gold.

But with just over three minutes remaining, Eva Thouvenot-Hebert, a striker on the Carabins’ shot a strike past Laurier keeper Mal Woeller to tie the game at 1.

Extra time solved nothing and in the shootout, Montreal goalkeeper Martine Julien stopped the final two Hawks shooters, Alyssa Lagonia and Sadie Anderson, to win the game for the Carabins. It was the second straight loss featuring penalty kicks for the Hawks.

The game was far less physical than the semi-finals game a year ago featuring the same two teams, but three plays in particular did draw the ire of the Hawks bench.

The first occurred when Hawks striker Julia Marchese was taken down in the 18-yard box in the second half and later, Alyssa Lagonia was on the receiving end of a high kick. As well, on the play in which Thouvenot-Hebert scored, the drive was very close to being offside.

Laurier will now play in the consolation semi-finals on Friday with fifth being the best result they can finish with.

For more information on this game, see Wednesday’s edition of The Cord.