By Hayden Cogswell
Fresh off a productive weekend in Wyoming, both the men’s and women’s club soccer teams entered Family and Friends Weekend ready to put up more wins at home. However, from the start, things didn’t pan out as planned for the men’s team.
Excited parents had gathered at Washburn Field on Saturday, ready to watch the men’s club soccer team compete in a tough game against the Regis University Rangers. However, scheduled kickoff came and went, there still was no sign of the Regis Univeristy team. CC was left with no answers as they were forced to abandon the game with no opponent to play.
“It was definitely a disappointment they didn’t show up,” Victor Van Albeek ’22 said. “Both Regis and the league didn’t let us know, and I know a lot of parents were excited to watch the game. We had a ton of interest in the team this year, and I know a lot of the guys were excited to get in a game at home.”
The women’s team had better luck this weekend, cruising to a 3–0 victory over the University of Denver Pioneers. Coming out of the gates hot, the first half proved to be all the team needed to put up a commanding and eventually decisive lead. The Tigers got the scoring going in the 20th minute when Mia Hsu ’20 rifled a direct free kick into the Pioneers’ net. Shortly after, captain Kekai Wong-Yuen ’20 followed up the effort with a goal from a header; and to cap off a sensational first half, captain Eliana Clayton ’20 struck a goal from outside the 18-yard box. With field players Claire Jennings ’23 and Sophia Jacober ’23 alternating responsibility in the goalkeeper spot, the Tigers stayed defensively strong throughout the second half to preserve a 3–0 win.
The men’s club team has two exciting clashes coming up with the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Colorado School of Mines. The Boulder matchup is shaping up to be a heated encounter, with passions still high after a narrow CU win the previous year. “Boulder is always a big game,” Van Albeeks said. “People don’t like Boulder and we definitely don’t like them. We tied them 2–2 last year and ended up losing in penalties, and we felt like we were hard done by in that game.”
Being such a big school, CU makes three separate teams, and the Tigers will play against two of them during the season, with the first battle coming this Sunday, Oct. 6.
The women’s team will play CU Boulder this coming weekend as well, traveling to boulder on Oct. 6 for the match. The team will also be back at CC shortly, with a match on Oct. 12 during Homecoming weekend. With the Tigers in such fine form, the matchups between the Tigers and the CU buffalos should prove to be exhilarating, close encounters.