Women’s soccer without a loss

Emma Landry controls the pace in Dal's undefeated weekend. (Martina Marien photo)

The Tigers finished their two-game opening weekend without a loss, but they did not receive the result they were looking for Sept. 9 against Saint Mary’s University at Wickwire Field.

Dalhousie was undoubtedly the better team against SMU in the second game of their season. The Huskies generated few scoring chances and the ball was rarely in Dal’s half, but, unfortunately for the home side, the Tigers were unable to capitalize.

“We need to have a little more high pressure and go into battles harder,” says Rieka Santilli, starting back for the Tigers. “We had really high energy on Friday but we didn’t come out with that same energy [today].”

The wind almost decided the outcome of Sunday’s 0-0 draw, actually. A last-ditch lob from the Tigers sailed over Huskies goalkeeper Samantha Bell, nearly resulting in what would have been the game’s only goal.

Dal head coach Jack Hutchison thought his team did a good job defending against the Huskies even with the strong wind.

“[The wind] holds the ball up or makes the ball a bit faster so sometimes it’s a little hard to play around that,” says Hutchison. “These are just the conditions and we have to work through them.”

In the weekend’s early game, the defending AUS champion Tigers started their new season in a fury, scoring three goals in the opening 22 minutes to seal a 3-1 victory in their favour. In Dal’s 23 shots on net, Santilli, Beth O’Reilly and Bianca Jakisa had the tallies.

Despite scoring a goal, O’Reilly would later leave the match when she broke her hand on an unfortunate run-in.

Hutchison is optimistic she will return to the lineup in no time.

“She’ll be back probably next week,” he says. “I don’t see her being out too long. It’s just a broken hand.”

The Tigers will take on the X-Women once again Friday, Sept. 14 in Antigonish. They will then make the trip to Cape Breton to battle the Capers the next day