The last time the Trinity Western Spartans lost a game this season, they caught fire, reeling off a 12-game unbeaten streak, which included 10 victories.
And the women’s soccer team hopes to duplicate that stretch of dominance once again, but this time just over a three-game span.
The Spartans lost 2-1 in overtime on Saturday night to the Alberta Pandas, in the Canada West Final Four championships, which were held in Victoria.
But regardless of the loss, the team still qualified for the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) national championships, which are being hosted by the University of Toronto.
The Spartans open on Thursday (Nov. 7) with their quarter-final match against the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks.
The game begins at 1:30 p.m. PST.
The Golden Hawks won the Ontario University Sport title.
Trinity Western is going for its second straight Gladys Bean Memorial Trophy, which would make them the first-ever women’s soccer program to win back-to-back CIS twice as they won in both 2008 and 2009.
A championship would also be their fourth in the past six years and would tie UBC with five national championships, most in CIS women’s soccer history.
It also marks the program’s seventh appearance on the national stage, and all have come in the past 10 years since they won their first title in the 2004 season.
The Spartans went 8-1-3 during conference play and are 2-1 in the post-season.
Leading the way offensively is last year’s Canada West rookie of the year Krista Gommeringer.
She was also one of five Spartans named to the Canada West all-star teams last week.
Gommeringer scored 11 of the team’s 32 goals this season.
The team outscored its foes by a combined 32-9.
The team does have goal-scoring depth behind Gommeringer, however as 11 of the 17 players have scored at least one goal.
Natalie Boyd has scored four while Alessandra Oliverio, Jessica King and Vanessa Kovacs have three apiece.
The goalkeeping duties will fall to Rachel Bedek, who played all but 45 minutes this season.
Bedek finished with 32 saves on 41 shots over the course of the season.