It’s been a storybook season for the St. Michaels University School Senior Girls Soccer team. All that is left to be written now is the final chapter.
The Blue Jags carry a 22-1 record into the B.C. AA Girls Soccer Championship, which will be hosted by SMUS beginning Thursday, June 1 at the University of Victoria.
It’s a special opportunity to be able to play for a provincial title in your own backyard, which is fitting because this is a special team.
The Blue Jags enter the 16-team B.C. tournament with a resumé that includes Lower Island Tier 1 League, Vancouver Island and Ryan Cup championships. SMUS has surrendered a total of just 12 goals this season in 23 games – and five of those came in the team’s lone loss, to Alberta’s Archbishop MacDonald at the UVic tournament in April.
SMUS carries into the B.C.s the sort of cohesion and confidence that comes from knowing one another very, very well. Seven members of these Blue Jags were Lower Island, Island, Coastal Cup and B.C. champions for Bays United in 2018, a team that was also guided by current SMUS head coach Jackie Cunningham.
“I have coached a lot of these girls since they were in Grade 3,” says Cunningham, who assumed senior head coaching duties this year with Nikki Kaufmann on parental leave. “We have a tremendous group of multisport athletes on this team with a varied skill set.”
They certainly do. Nine members of the soccer squad were also part of the SMUS Senior Girls Field Hockey team that captured the B.C. AA championship in November. And seven players from this team also suited up for the SMUS Senior Girls Basketball team which finished second in the B.C. AAA tournament in March. Three players – Wynn Brown, Amanda Adams and Rebecca Stone – returned late last month from a training camp with Canada’s U18 field hockey team in Paris.
That athleticism and talent is reflected in the number of athletes from this team who will go on to play post-secondary sport next year. Sophie Olcen and Brianne McLeish have committed to UVic soccer, Makena Anderson will play basketball for the Vikes and both Stone and Adams will join UVic field hockey. In addition, SMUS soccer goalkeeper Eva Cuddihy is headed to the University of Guelph, where she will play field hockey.
Olcen, a centre back for the soccer team, points to the all-around nature of these SMUS athletes as a major reason for their success on the pitch.
“I have to think it’s our athleticism and everyone’s sport backgrounds,” Olcen says. “Everyone here is a multi-sport athlete and we’re all friends. I think that helps in any sport.”
The Blue Jags will need that athletic edge and cohesion in order to come out on top in the demanding format of the B.C. tournament. The 16 teams will be divided into four pools. The winner of each pool will earn a spot in the semifinals, which will decide the two teams playing for the title next Saturday, June 3.
“We have to approach each game as if it’s a final,” says Cunningham, acknowledging that there is little room for error. “We have to maintain our standard.”
The Blue Jags have a strong defensive backbone, as illustrated by the fact they surrendered just three goals in an 8-0 Lower Island league regular season run. That stinginess starts with Cuddihy, the goalkeeper who was also MVP for SMUS in the B.C. Field Hockey Championships. Cuddihy recorded a clean sheet throughout the Island AA soccer tournament in Courtenay, including a 2-0 decision over Mark Isfeld in the championship game. The Blue Jags also blanked Stelly’s 1-0 in the Ryan Cup final, and Cuddihy is quick to deflect credit to her teammates.
“I trust our defenders a lot,’’ says Cuddihy, who has attended SMUS since Kindergarten. “It’s so comforting to have a strong team in front of me. We all support each other.”
SMUS has shown an ability to maintain ball possession this season, forcing teams to chase the athletic Blue Jags. “And we are dangerous on the attack,’’ Cunningham says, pointing to the team’s 17 goals (while surrendering none) in the Island tournament.
“We take pride in our defence,” Olcen adds, “but we also have super fast strikers.”
The Blue Jags will need to have all components working in order to prevail in a three-day, five-match B.C. tournament format. Although there are no formal provincial rankings due to the fact there isn’t enough cross-region play, other teams that figure to be factors in the hunt for the B.C. title include defending champion Notre Dame, Valleyview of Kamloops and Collingwood, which SMUS squeaked past on penalty kicks at the ISA tournament final.
“Five games over three days is a lot, both mentally and physically,” Cuddihy says. “When you’re tired, it’s important to stick together.”
That shouldn’t be a problem for a Blue Jags squad that has essentially grown up together on the soccer field, as well as other athletic settings.
“I think for this group of kids [a B.C. title] would be fitting for what they’ve done and how hard they’ve worked,” Cunningham says. “And the best part of it all is that they’re amazing kids.”
