Soccer X-Women win & tie to open season

The AUS defending champion and CIS ranked No. 10 X-Women soccer team kicked off the AUS season with a win and tie, as they blanked Memorial 2-0 on Saturday and played to a scoreless draw Sunday against UPEI. Both games were played on home turf in Antigonish.

In Saturday’s season opener against Memorial, StFX’s first goal actually came as an own goal off a Seahawks defender in the 19th minute. The 1-0 lead held at half-time as shots were fairly even in the first half at 4-3 in favor of StFX.

Freshman midfielder Melanie Sunada played a strong game for X and scored the insurance marker in the 67th minute directly off a corner kick. The X-Women controlled the majority of the flow of the game in the second half and outshot the Seahawks 8-6 in the second half. Sunada had three shots on net, while striker Olivia Zanette fired five shots on Seahawks netminder Simone Quinlan.

Veteran fourth year keeper Anna Thompson earned the shutout win in nets for StFX, recording five saves in the game. Sunada took home Subway Player of the Game honors in the win.

On Sunday afternoon, the X-Women and Panthers played in a re-match of the 2009 AUS championship. In that game the X-Women edged the Panthers 2-1 in penalty kicks for the conference title. Sunday’s affair was another hard fought, close game that saw neither team find the back of the net in a 0-0 tie.

Shots were close with the Panthers holding a 7-6 edge in the game. Player of the Game Anna Thompson played her second consecutive shutout game, not allowing a goal and recording five saves. Goalkeeper Chanelle Roy had five saves in the UPEI net.

The X-Women were one of four AUS teams to post a 1-0-1 record in the opening weekend of play and gain four points in the standings. They will travel to New Brunswick next weekend for games against UNB (0-1-1) and Moncton (1-0-1).