Lady Lancers still winless

By Taylor Renkema

Loyalist Lancer Shelby Lough approaches Seneca's Hilda Chmait in Wednesday's game. Photo by Taylor Renkema

The Loyalist women’s soccer team is still without a win after Wednesday night’s 4-1 loss against the Seneca Sting.

The Lancers are 0-4-1 after the loss on home turf.

Despite losing, head coach Steve Whitehead was proud of the team’s offensive improvements. Carly Simons scored Loyalist’s only goal of the game at the 24-minute mark in the second half. It was Loyalist’s second goal in five games, but Whitehead said they are only the second OCAA team to score on the undefeated Sting this year.

“It was a big goal for us. To score against this team, they’re ranked fourth in the province, so they don’t get many goals scored against them,” said Whitehead. “They have one of the best goalkeepers in the province, if not Canada, so you could see she was quite upset when she got scored on,”

At the other end of the field, Lancers goaltender Lindsey Buck allowed four goals. Buck is the daughter of Loyalist’s Athletic Director Jim Buck. Lindsey says there is no pressure from her father.

“He just tells me to play what I want and play hard,” she said.

Whitehead is new to the head coach position this season after six years of being assistant coach. He took over from his brother Mike.

In a pre-game e-mail interview, Whitehead said there’s definitely more pressure and more responsibility with his new position.

“As an assistant for seven years I was in a supporting role, and obviously now it is a lead role where expectations are higher,” he said.

Whitehead has similarly high expectations of his team. He said he was expecting them to play at their highest level and intensity, and give 100 per cent all game.

Whitehead also said there are four other teams within one win of the Lady Lancers, so it is still a close season. He said they still have a chance to make the playoffs if they beat Centennial College on Saturday in Toronto.

Whitehead said the team’s captain Lisa Hill and assistant captain Vanessa Brault help keep the team motivated.

“They have quite different personalities and help the team in their own ways. I think the team has a good spirit,” he said.

Buck agreed.

“Lisa and Vanessa really help keep the team positive,” she said. “We try to say there’s nothing we can do but improve and go up from here and learn from our mistakes and do better next time.”

Whitehead also said games at the OCAA level are very intense, and last night was no different.

“It involves hard tackles to win balls and unfortunately players do get hurt sometimes just like they do in other sports. As coach you always hope injuries on either team are minor because the students have to go to school in the morning,” he said.

Buck said she hopes everyone is healthy by Saturday for the game.

“I just hope we play hard the whole game and keep fighting and that we win,” she said.