The University of Manitoba is set to host the U SPORTS Women's Soccer Championship tournament November 9-12. To celebrate, Canada West is looking back at the conference's previous women's soccer national champions. Today, we look back at the '04 TWU Spartans.
Brian Swane, Special to Canada West
EDMONTON - Erin-Marie Alhayek wasn’t aware she and her teammates had just made history.
Not once did it cross her mind that they had broken new ground.
It wasn’t until the Trinity Western Spartans celebrated after the 2004 Canadian women’s soccer gold medal game and coach Graham Roxburgh gave a victory speech that she realized they were the first team from the Langley school to become CIS champs.
“I did not think about that at all,” says Ahayek (nee Higgins). “It was my second year and I had no idea what it was like to make the playoffs or go to a national championship at that level. It was a complete whirlwind.
“Graham had to let us know how much a win like this meant for the school as it helped put TWU on the map for sports and in general by getting that first win.”
In just its fourth season of CIS soccer, TWU dramatically rallied to upset the host McGill Martlets for a championship so unbelievable that it’s taken over a decade to fully process.
“Now that it has been a few years, I realize how fortunate we were to win one,” says Alhayek, a defender who played five seasons for the Spartans from 2003 to 2007. “It is not easy to win a national championship, especially back then when Canada West only had one berth to the championship. I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to go through that season and especially to go through a national championship run that culminated in a win.”
Before 2004, no TWU team had so much as qualified for nationals in any varsity sport. When the women’s soccer team brought home the Gladys Bean Memorial Trophy, Spartan spirit resonated throughout TWU’s student body of about 3,000 and far beyond the boundaries of its Metro Vancouver campus.
“We had amazing support from people back home … and after we won the euphoria and hype around the team was phenomenal,” says Alhayek. “There were tons of people at the airport to meet us including a news crew, and back at Trinity everyone knew about it and was elated.”
At the outset of the 2004 campaign, the Spartans aimed to simply play later on the calendar than the year prior, when they missed the post-season entirely. That was far from certain with TWU hovering around the middle of the Canada West standings halfway through their schedule. Then the Spartans won 3-0 at Victoria and went undefeated over their final seven matches to finish in second place.
“After that game in UVic, we knew we had something special and we ran with it,” Alhayek says.
The Spartans carried their hot streak into the Canada West playoffs at UBC’s Thunderbird Stadium. There, they bested the Vikes 1-0 in a semifinal before blasting Calgary 4-0 in the gold medal match to give their school its first conference title and national championship berth.
At nationals, TWU opened with a scoreless draw versus UPEI, followed with a 7-0 victory over the co-host Montreal Carabins. With a 1-0-1 record, the Spartans finished atop Pool A and advanced to the gold medal final, against Pool B winners McGill.
The championship game started as most of the fans at Molson Stadium anticipated, with their heavily favoured Martlets scoring in the 19th and 21st minutes while keeping TWU off the board to head into the break with a considerable advantage.
“One thing Graham always said is that a 2-0 score at half is the worst lead you can have, and it has been proved over and over again to me that it is true because the team that is leading gets a bit complacent as they think they have the game in the bag,” Alhayek says.
“I do not remember if he mentioned this at half time of the final, I just remember that he believed in us and we believed in each other and that is what pushed us forward.”
The Spartans’ first goal came just four minutes into the second half, with Alhayek setting up Emily Bond for a chip that made the score 2-1. Their second goal almost never came.
Still trailing by one as the match entered injury time, TWU finally got the equalizer it had desperately sought for 40-plus minutes when Rachelle Armstrong lobbed a shot over McGill goalkeeper Victoria Villalba with barely a moment to spare.
The score remained level through a pair of 15-minute overtime periods, leaving it up to a shootout to decide the national champion.
TWU scored on two if its first three kicks, while the Martlets missed on all three, with one going wide and two stopped by Spartans keeper Angela Garriott. McGill’s Eloise Vanda stepped to the spot for her team’s fourth attempt needing a goal to stay alive.
Garriott stopped her cold.
“Angela Garriott was fantastic in shootouts for us all season,” says Alhayek. “Her saving (three) was unbelievable. At that level you are fortunate if you get one save. I just remember the pure exuberance when she made that final save. I do not think we knew what hit us.”
Over the last dozen years, the Spartans have become a consistent force in women’s soccer, capturing the Gladys Bean Trophy in 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, with hopes of winning a sixth national title when Manitoba hosts the 2017 U SPORTS Women’s Soccer Championship, Nov. 9 -12.
There have been other U SPORTS gold medals for the school, with TWU’s men’s volleyball program winning in 2006, 2011, 2012, 2015, and 2016 and women’s volleyball adding the most recent two years ago. A number of Spartans track and field competitors have individual national titles to their credit, too.
The championships will continue to add up over the years, but the first will always be the first.
“I think the legacy for us that year was that we were trailblazers for a small school that was going on to do big things,” Alhayek says.
“Even though we were the first to put Trinity on the map, there have been multiple championships by the women’s soccer team, the volleyball teams, and the track teams since. I believe that by us winning that title, it had a huge impact for the women’s soccer program in terms of the quality of players Graham and his coaching staff were able to recruit.
“It always astounds me at how small of a school Trinity is, yet they keep doing so well athletically,” she adds.
“It is a special place with a lot of special people.”
More on the U SPORTS Women's Soccer Championship:
For the first time ever, the University of Manitoba is set to host the U SPORTS women's soccer national tournament, as the event travel to Investors Group Field November 9-12.
Tournament ticket packages, as well as single game tickets can now be purchased by clicking here.