8 THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2011 EDITOR JESSE WINTER SS Falcons gear up for finals Both of Langara’s soccer teams are heading to BCCAA post-season Women's team picking up speed Female Falcons wrapped up their regular season with two strong wins, looking good for finals By EMMA CRAWFORD e Langara Falcons women’s soccer team pulled ahead of the competition this past weekend with a 2-1 win against the Kwantlen Eagles on Saturday and a 2-0 win against Douglas College on Sun- day. Langara went into the weekend tied with Kwantlen for first place in their pool and with the provincial champion- ships starting next weekend, these were important wins for the team. “For the most part, we’ve been pret- ty happy,” Falcons’ coach Ryan Birt said. “We’ve got a really, really young group, so there’s been a lot of learning that’s been going on about learning to play at this level.” Their strength, Birt said, lies in their high skill level and keeping possession of the ball. However, with 11 first-year players, their lack of experience is their biggest weakness. He said the team will continue to fo- cus on their strengths and work to get tighter defensively. Striker Danae Harding, a first-year arts and science student, got the first goal of Saturday’s game. She said the team feels prepared for the finals and that they’ve been working on strength- ening their game by focusing on transi- tions, but that overall the group works well together. “The cohesion of the team’s been in- credible the past couple weeks,” Hard- ing said. “It’s getting better and better every game.” Kwantlen’s Shanay Sangha tied the game on Saturday, making the score one-all at the end of the first half. Birt said Sangha is one of the best players in the conference along with Langara’s Lana Rockhill, a third-year striker and one of the team captains, with nine goals each this season. The Falcons’ Kate Steele got the final goal of Saturday’s game in the second half. Central midfielder and _ first-year arts and science student Dayn Mc- Gregor said that the team members communicate well with each other and agreed with her coach that keeping possession is one of their strengths. She said these two games were impor- tant for the team. “T think that this weekend is a big weekend and that it’ll kind of get us in the process of preparing ourselves for provincials,” McGregor said. 66 The cohesion of the team’s been incredible the past couple of weeks... it’s getting better and better Falcons’ striker DANAE HARDING MORNA CASSIDY photo Langara Falcons men’s soccer team battle it out against the Douglas College Royals, in the final game of regular league play. The match ended in a 0-3 loss for the Falcons. Matches played: 12 Win: 4 Draw. 2 Loss: 6 Highest home win: Falcons vs Douglas College Royals: 1-0 HE Highest home loss: Falcons vs UNBC Timberwolves: 0-3 ME Highest away win: Falcons vs UNBC Timberwolves: 0-1 Source: pacwesthe.ca Plagued by inconsistent performance, the men’s team faces serious post-season challenges By MORNA CASSIDY team floundered in back to back games this weekend, losing to both Kwantlen and Douglas College. The team enters post-season ranked sixth in a field of nine. Conceding defeat to Kwantlen’s lone goal on Saturday, the Falcons finish the season with six losses, three wins and two draws. Coach David Shankland, was disap- pointed with the result against Kwantlen, “we were very, very, poor against a team we should easily beat,” he said. Te: Langara Falcons men’s soccer — Goals for — Goals against In Sunday’s game against Douglas College, the Falcons produced a similar result, with a loss of 3-0 to the top ranked team in the league. The result, however, does not affect Langara’s standing as Douglas has been disquali- fied from the season due to a clerical error. It has been eleven years since the Falcons have been CCAA national champions and seven since they held the provincial title. Although the pro- vincial division only hosts nine teams, the Falcons have struggled to make it very far in the playoff rounds. “We have a lot of sorting out to do this week in two days of training. I’m not overly confident to be honest. We seem to have a Jekyll and Hyde team. One day we play so good and the next day we play so bad,” said Shankland. As well as their weak wins to losses record, the team also has a consider- able number of goals against, allowing 20 goals during regular season play while only scoring 11. A sizeable defi- cit compared to top scoring team, Van- couver Island University with 21 fa- vourable goals and only 6 against. Despite what the statistics show, coach Shankland believes his team can recover from their poor performance this weekend. “They are a good enough team to get through... with Douglas College being eliminated, we have a good chance of winning, but they have to perform.” The 2011 BCCAA Provincial Soccer Championships takes place October 28- 30 at University of British Columbia Okanagan. Langara opens their post- season against the second seeded Cap- ilano in the men’s quarter final on Oc- tober 28. The national championship tournament will follow in Quebec City from November 9-12. oals J ( GCHMNwWAMOAN BY 4 5 Rounds Source: pacwestbc.ca The stats show the men’s soccer team has struggled throughout the season with lop-sided goals-against averages Couture, college both score second at opening tourney Langara’s badminton team takes home silver from their first tournament of the season By MARTIN WISSMATH place at the Vancouver Island Uni- versity badminton tournament last weekend, with the team also finishing second overall. The tournament consisted of two events. Langara’s second-place finish in the round-robin team event was their best result in recent years, ac- cording to coach Mare Petreman. The Falcons were edged out of first by Douglas College. Each competition also had its indi- vidual event. Couture had a strong tournament but lost in the men’s sin- gles finals to Douglas College’s Rey Wei on Sunday morning. “T just wasn’t able to find a rhythm against him,” Couture said. “My strat- egy is to rally him until he doesn’t want to play anymore. His strategy is he wants to win it in four shots.” Cou- ture conceded that his opponent’s strategy outper- formed his own, but is “looking for- ward to being even | ee Luke Couture took second tougher against him next time,” he MARC PETREMAN said. Langara Couture defeat- badminton coach ed Capilano Col- lege’s Kayzs Tama- sauskas in the semi-finals. “He’s a very strong Canadian player,” said Couture, “we’re good friends, and we play each other a lot.” The Falcons’ star was look- ing forward to the challenge, and man- aged to win a hard-fought contest. “He was leading most of the game,” Couture said, “but I was able to just keep fighting and play my way back into it. Ultimately, I think my fitness prevailed. It was a really nice win against a really tough competitor.” Coach Petreman had high praise for his team. “I’m really pleased,” he said, “it’s a nice team, hard-working, and it’s enjoyable to coach them. They played well in the team event.” Petreman said he understood that some players were disappointed with the second-place finish, but defended their performance given the difficulty of some of the competition. “Some of their players have played at an international level,” he said of the Douglas College team. Alisa Young played on a mixed dou- bles team with Chris Chung, last year’s Nationals silver medalist. They fin- ished fifth overall, she said. “T haven’t actually played with him very often,” said Young, who is in her first year. “To finish fifth in the first tournament we played together I think is good.” She is looking forward to the rest of the season. “T think it’s looking good. We fin- ished well. [Petreman] is really opti- mistic about the year ahead. Hopefully we will get in to Provincials and maybe Nationals.” MARCH 1 - 3, 2012 - THOMPSON RIVERS UNIVERSITY