News Releases

Women’s Soccer

Veteran Ruth Shantz taking a shot on net

Opening up the Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference Championships, the Providence Lady Freemen (#2) went straight to work against the CMU Blazers (#3) on Saturday morning (October 22). Stepping up big time for Providence was Annemarie Kaethler (Filadelfia, Paraguay) who after receiving a skilful pass from Elena Rempel (Niverville, MB), fired a shot past CMU goalkeeper following a first blocked attempt. Kaethler then went on to score twice more in the second half, completing a hat trick for the game. Kaethler’s second and third goals were assisted by Elena Rempel and Melanie Warkentine (Winkler, MB) .

Adding to her own resume, Breanne Mahara (Fannystelle, MB) pitched in two goals off of deflections; showing that hard work and hustle pays off. In addition, Rempel scored a 6th and final goal from the top of the 18th (assisted by Danielle Sanjenko) to help the team capture a 6-0 win over CMU and earn their spot in the finals on Sunday. Coach Calla was impressed with Providence goalkeeper Kristi Larson (Gardner, ND) who made several unbelievable saves off of a hardworking CMU team at the beginning of the game.

In an evidently slower start for the Lady Freemen Sunday afternoon (October 23), the University of Winnipeg team took advantage early in the Final. Allowing 4 goals in the first 8 minutes of the game, Providence dug themselves a hole too deep to get out of. Yet despite other reports of a seeming blow-out, the Providence squad proved that they had what it takes to compete with the University of Winnipeg team, keeping them scoreless for the following 82 minutes of the game. In the 89th and 90th minutes, Providence ran out of steam as they let up two more goals to lose the final 6-0 to the advantaged Wesmen.

Much credit is due to goalkeeper Larson who made some expert saves impressing both sides, and was awarded Player of the Game. Coach Calla comments, “Regardless of a 6-0 win or 6-0 loss--our goal is to continually be improving our skill and development as a team, and I feel like we are doing just that. These games were also great preparation for our upcoming NCCAA Regional Tournament this weekend at Providence.”

Notable statistics:
Annemarie Kaethler -3 goals; Breanne Mahara -2 goals; Elena Rempel -1 goal, 2 assists; Danielle Sanjenko -1 assist; Melanie Warkentine -1 assist.

Men’s Soccer

Janke, Campos, Danso & Dick lead the pack on a break

For the men’s semi-final Saturday (October 22), Providence took on the Red River College Rebels and it was clear from the start that the Rebels’ game plan was to defend in depth and counter-attack. It was a plan that worked as after heavy pressure was applied from the Freemen in the opening 20 minutes, the Rebels opened the scoring with a quick attack. The Freemen were stunned again 10 minutes later as sloppy defending left a Rebel forward unmarked from a corner kick and the score was suddenly 2-0. Despite attacking throughout the game and hitting the crossbar a couple of times, the Freemen could not find the net against the resilient Rebel defense. When the final whistle blew, it was Red River who advanced to the Championship game.

Head Coach Martin adds, “Credit should be given to Red River today for a well earned win. They took their chances and they stopped us from scoring. It's a pretty simple formula but it works.”

Sunday's bronze medal game was against the University de St. Boniface. Les Voyageurs line up was missing several regular starters but the game was fairly even until the 30 minute mark when Andry Giesbrecht (Colon La Menno, Paraguay) teed up the ball for Norvin Campos (San Salvador, El Salvador) to hit a beautiful shot into the top corner from 25 yards. Before half time the Freemen went up 2-0 when Andry finished off a pass from Jonathan Janke (Thunder Bay, ON). In the second half the Freemen started to control the game and twice more Jon Janke fed the prolific left foot of Andry who blasted shots past the helpless goalie. Martial Galay (Norquay, SK) joined the action, curling a left footed shot against the crossbar before setting up Mark Wiebe (Winnipeg, MB) to calmly slot home his first goal of the year. Galay's persistence paid off when he weaved through to score and Andry finished off with his fourth of the day to finish the bronze medal match 7-0 for Providence.

Notable statistics:
Andry Giesbrecht -4 goals, 2 assists; Norvin Campos -1 goal; Mark Wiebe -1 goal, Martial Galay -1 goal, 1 assist; Jonathan Janke -3 assists.