Gryphon soccer women turn in repeat performance
GUELPH – The Guelph Gryphons recorded their second 2-0 victory over the Waterloo Warriors in OUA women’s soccer play Sunday at the Gryphon Soccer Complex.
The victory came despite a 45-minute delay for rain and thunder with just over four minutes to go in the opening half.
Guelph Gryphons 2 Waterloo Warriors 0
“The rain delay, what’s really important is you have to have a reset,” Gryphon head coach Shayne Campbell said. “You have to have the opportunity to reset and get the players to go through the process again. Redo their mental prep. Redo their walk.”
The Gryphs had defeated the Warriors by the identical score Friday night at Waterloo.
Sunday, the Gryphs scored once in each half for the win.
“It’s really tough when you play back-to-back because you’re trying to maintain the performance you had on the Friday night and the team that you’re playing against has obviously got another opportunity to change up a few things and try and return the favour, so to speak,” Campbell said. “I always think it’s very difficult no matter what situation you’re in the first game. The second game for both teams is always tricky. It’s not an easy thing to repeat.”
Anna Bernardi struck in the 11th minute, assisted by Olivia Rizakos, for the first goal while Olivia Stavropoulos added the second goal in the 68th minute.
Sabrina Spano had the clean sheet in the Guelph goal. She had a single save.
Natalie Mouradian had nine saves in the Waterloo net.
While the Gryphs outshot the Warriors 11-1 on shots that reached the net, they outshot Waterloo 17-2 on shots taken.
The Gryphs took three of the four corner kicks in the game while Waterloo was whistled for both of the game’s fouls.
The win lifts the Gryphs to 2-1-1 while Waterloo falls to 1-4-0.
“We grow every day,” Campbell said. “We are a group that looks to try and improve and get one percent better every day. Since we started camp until now, we’ve grown as a team and we are improving as a team. Now it’s a matter of just having to keep that growth going. Every game in the OUA is a difficult fixture so you have to use those as opportunities to learn, to grow, to get better every single day. There are areas we still want to improve in, for sure, and the learning journey continues.”
And what area of their game needs the most attention from the Gryphons?
“You always want to create more chances,” Campbell said. “That’s always important. You always want to create more chances and always trying different ways to do things so it’s not just one way. In a game if we’re having trouble, we can shift what we do to a different way. Being able to do a variety of different things, that just takes time to build the team levels and communication to be able to do those things. It just takes time.”
Laurier Golden Hawks lead the West Division at 4-0-2 and they’re followed by the McMaster Marauders (3-0-2), Windsor Lancers (3-1-1), the Gryphs, Western Mustangs (2-1-1), York Lions (1-1-3), Waterloo, Brock Badgers (0-2-2) and Algoma Thunderbirds (0-6-0).
Next up for the Gryphs is a game against Brock at St. Catharines Saturday at 1 p.m.
- Guelph Sports Journal
Gryphon soccer women turn in repeat performance
GUELPH – The Guelph Gryphons recorded their second 2-0 victory over the Waterloo Warriors in OUA women’s soccer play Sunday at the Gryphon Soccer Complex.
The victory came despite a 45-minute delay for rain and thunder with just over four minutes to go in the opening half.
Guelph Gryphons 2
Waterloo Warriors 0
“The rain delay, what’s really important is you have to have a reset,” Gryphon head coach Shayne Campbell said. “You have to have the opportunity to reset and get the players to go through the process again. Redo their mental prep. Redo their walk.”
The Gryphs had defeated the Warriors by the identical score Friday night at Waterloo.
Sunday, the Gryphs scored once in each half for the win.
“It’s really tough when you play back-to-back because you’re trying to maintain the performance you had on the Friday night and the team that you’re playing against has obviously got another opportunity to change up a few things and try and return the favour, so to speak,” Campbell said. “I always think it’s very difficult no matter what situation you’re in the first game. The second game for both teams is always tricky. It’s not an easy thing to repeat.”
Anna Bernardi struck in the 11th minute, assisted by Olivia Rizakos, for the first goal while Olivia Stavropoulos added the second goal in the 68th minute.
Sabrina Spano had the clean sheet in the Guelph goal. She had a single save.
Natalie Mouradian had nine saves in the Waterloo net.
While the Gryphs outshot the Warriors 11-1 on shots that reached the net, they outshot Waterloo 17-2 on shots taken.
The Gryphs took three of the four corner kicks in the game while Waterloo was whistled for both of the game’s fouls.
The win lifts the Gryphs to 2-1-1 while Waterloo falls to 1-4-0.
“We grow every day,” Campbell said. “We are a group that looks to try and improve and get one percent better every day. Since we started camp until now, we’ve grown as a team and we are improving as a team. Now it’s a matter of just having to keep that growth going. Every game in the OUA is a difficult fixture so you have to use those as opportunities to learn, to grow, to get better every single day. There are areas we still want to improve in, for sure, and the learning journey continues.”
And what area of their game needs the most attention from the Gryphons?
“You always want to create more chances,” Campbell said. “That’s always important. You always want to create more chances and always trying different ways to do things so it’s not just one way. In a game if we’re having trouble, we can shift what we do to a different way. Being able to do a variety of different things, that just takes time to build the team levels and communication to be able to do those things. It just takes time.”
Laurier Golden Hawks lead the West Division at 4-0-2 and they’re followed by the McMaster Marauders (3-0-2), Windsor Lancers (3-1-1), the Gryphs, Western Mustangs (2-1-1), York Lions (1-1-3), Waterloo, Brock Badgers (0-2-2) and Algoma Thunderbirds (0-6-0).
Next up for the Gryphs is a game against Brock at St. Catharines Saturday at 1 p.m.
- Guelph Sports Journal