The Carleton Ravens women’s soccer team lost their bid for second place in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East division after suffering a 3-2 loss to the University of Toronto Varsity Blues in the final minute of the game Oct. 20.
“Going into it, we really thought we could win it,” Ravens head coach Alex McNutt said.
With 30 seconds left on the scoreboard, the Varsity Blues broke the 2-2 tie.
The Ravens team could have locked up second place in the division if they tied the Blues. If they did finish in second place they would have had a bye into the OUA quarter-finals.
“We weren’t playing for the tie, we were playing to win the game,” McNutt said.
Ravens fifth-year forward Sarah Royer scored the first goal for the Ravens, tying the Varsity Blues who took the early 1-0 lead.
The score was in Carleton’s favour at the beginning of the second half as they were leading the Varsity Blues 2-1.
Ravens third-year defender Rozlyn Boutin scored the second goal for Carleton, which McNutt said “deserved to be a game-winning goal.”
“I was obviously disappointed,” Boutin said about the loss.
Boutin said over the course of the season, the team steadily improved on seeing opportunities for goals and capitalizing on them.
“We missed some good chances to go [up] 3-1 and nearly finish it off,” McNutt said of the second half of the game.
The team seemed to have “switched off” in the second half, he said.
The Ravens won their first game of the weekend Oct. 19 against the Ryerson University Rams by a score of 3-1. There is still a chance of redemption for the Ravens. The team played the Nipissing University Lakers in the first round of the OUA playoffs Oct. 23.
The Ravens beat the Lakers 3-2 and with the win advanced to the OUA quarter-finals. They will now travel to play U of T in a rematch Oct. 27. The winner of that game will advance to the OUA Final Four.
“It’s been a great season with an unfortunate end, and we have to move on and be confident we can go to nationals this year,” McNutt said.
