CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – The Holland College Hurricanes soccer teams close out the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association regular season on home turf this weekend.
They host the UNBSJ Seawolves and St. Thomas (STU) Tommies at the Terry Fox Sports Complex in Cornwall at 2 (women) and 4 p.m. (men) each day.
Women
Holland College’s women’s team is 7-3-0 and in third place in the standings while the Seawolves (3-3-4) are fourth and the Tommies (9-0-1) are first. The Hurricanes defeated the Seawolves 1-0 on Sept. 22 in Saint John, N.B., and lost 3-1 the next day to the Tommies in Fredericton, N.B.
“With a spot confirmed in next weekend’s ACAA playoffs, we need to use this weekend to fine tune our game plan and make sure we are executing to our potential. We are playing two strong teams that will test us in several areas of our game. UNBSJ have a lot of pace and can cause you problems, while STU have pace and can maintain possession and really challenge you.”
Kris McKinnon, Hurricanes women's soccer coach
“Our team is wanting to come out stronger than ever, and to put everything we’ve worked on over the season into these two games to get the results we’re looking for,” said centre-midfielder T-Anna Fraser.
‘Canes striker Nicole Fergusson said it is a big weekend for the squad.
“We will see how bad we want this,” she said. “To succeed this weekend we must forget our past experiences and focus on our future games. I think this team is capable of anything.”
Men
The men’s Hurricanes (7-2-1) are in first place in the standings while the Seawolves (4-2-4) are fourth and the Tommies (6-1-3) are second. Holland College and UNBSJ played a scoreless game on Sept. 22 and the Tommies defeated the ’Canes 3-1.
“With the league so tight in points, this weekend will add some extra pressure for us to perform. We would like to redeem ourselves as we dropped points to both STU and UNBSJ last outing.”
Jonathan Vos, Hurricanes men's soccer coach
First-year Hurricane Bobby Gamba said he realizes first place could come down to Sunday’s match.
“The fight for playoff positioning is still on, so we’ll have to be at our best this weekend,” he said. “Both teams have taken points from us this season, so it’ll be a challenging weekend. We’ll take it game by game, and hopefully come out on top.”
The top four teams from the regular season standings will compete at the conference championships, hosted by the Mount Saint Vincent Mystics in Halifax Oct. 26-28.
The Hurricanes are hosts of the men’s national championship in Cornwall Nov. 6-10 while the women’s event is in Coquitlam, B.C.
