The Carleton Ravens women’s soccer team opened their season with a 1-0 loss at home to the uOttawa Gee-Gees Friday night.
After posting a 0-2-1 record in the preseason, the Ravens kicked off their 2026-27 campaign with the team’s annual Soccer Fights Cancer Night against their crosstown rivals.
Taking over for former head coach Dom Oliveri, the Ravens brought in a new full-time head coach in Taylor Peiser, the first female head coach in program history.
The former NCAA coach soaked it all in during her U Sports coaching debut.
“It was exciting,” Peiser said after the game. “You have to just embrace it and be excited about it and all the nerves that come with [the coaching debut]. You just got to honour them and play anyway.”
The Gee-Gees were in tight control of the ball for much of the first half, whipping in cross after cross and taking shot after shot t before earning a penalty kick in the 40th minute.
But, uOttawa’s Sabrina Mangiaracina’s ball was stopped on the goal line by Ravens goalkeeper Ty Dukart. Nyah Davies cleared the rebound for the Ravens to come out unscathed.
“[Dukart] did wonderfully,” Peiser said of Dukart, who finished the game with 12 saves. “The big penalty save, a couple of huge saves over here in the second half, we’re really proud of her. We’re happy to have her in goal this year because of her great shot-stopping, good confidence, good leadership from the back, so we look forward to seeing her throughout the season.”
But it was only five minutes later when uOttawa’s MaryLou Peladeau banged home the lone goal of the match off a rebound in stoppage time.
“I think the girls came out a little bit under shock at the beginning, a little bit not used to the pressure that uOttawa can put on a team, but we dealt with it well,” Peiser said.
“We had some kinks in the first half that we had to really work out and come back in the second half and trust our system,” Ravens veteran defender Mia Hollingsworth said.
Although Carleton wouldn’t mount the comeback, they pressed hard against a demanding fourth-ranked team in the country that earned five corners in the second half.
“I think the growth and the learning from the first half to the second half was already enormous,” Peiser said. “In the second half, we started to find our groove a little bit more and we stuck to our style of play, so I’m really proud of the girls in that one and we really built throughout the game.”
Last year’s team fell short in the first round of the OUA championships after a strong 8-3-1 regular season record. The loss, however, was their fourth straight first round exit.
“It’s going to take a lot of grit and winning takes almost more out of you than losing does so it hurts more, ” Hollingsworth said. “It feels like you’re exhausted more of the time but that grit gets pulled out of you during big games and we’re going to see that coming out more.”
With notable players leaving such as OUA East all-stars Mikayla Moser, Chloe Lachance-Soulard, and Lauren Illman, the team only has three players in their fourth year and above compared to last year’s team which had seven.
“I don’t feel like it’s a complete rebuild,” Hollingsworth said. “We had a lot of graduating players but with [Peiser] coming in and we spent since last winter building this system, learning it, trusting each other and learning each other, I think there’s a lot of trust within this team and once we bring that out with confidence it’s going to be good.”
Carleton hosts the Queen’s Gaels on Sunday and will meet the Gee-Gees once again on Sept. 25 on the other side of the capital.
“We play in less than 48 hours, so the break is just a refresh, take a breath, what did we learn, and now we keep going,” Peiser said. “I think the way we finished the game is really putting us in a good spot to just continue on for Queen’s, we just keep rolling and we keep climbing.”
Kickoff is at 1 p.m.
Featured image by Spencer Colby/the Charlatan
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