VICTORIA – The University of Victoria Vikes women's soccer team had their confidence restored after putting away Fraser Valley 5-1 on Sept. 8 in Abbotsford, B.C. The Vikes improve their record to 1-2, while Fraser Valley are now 0-2 in the Canada West.
 
Third-year Vike Georgia Bignold scored two, while fourth-year striker Kiara Kilbey had a goal and assist in the team's first victory. Aishy Shinomura and rookie MacKenzie Ringrose also got on the board as Puck Louwes logged just one save in the game. The Cascades scored late on a goal from Gurneet Dhaliwal.
 
"I think we wanted to come out here and show that we could score some goals and yesterday I actually thought we had a good performance going forward," said Vikes head coach Tracy David about her team's 0-2 start against heavy weights UBC and Trinity Western. "We just didn't get the finish that maybe we were looking for so, I thought that tonight when we had chances we were able to finish them."
 
The scoring got off to a start in the 14^th minute when Caitlin Millham had a nice steal from a Cascades defender. Millham sprung Kilbey who fought off her defender and chipped a bouncing ball past Cascades keeper Joven Sandhu.
 
In the 17^th minute the Vikes led a strong attack down the right side and a dangerous ball played in the box was unable to be cleared by Fraser Valley. Kilbey was able to tough it to Bignold, who turned and unleashed a bullet to double the Vikes' lead to 2-0.
 
The Vikes continued to set the pace as Kyra Teetzen cut the ball inside to find an overlapping Shinomura in the middle of the park. The second-year midfielder forced her way past a Cascades defender and finished on a long-range and left-footed shot for a 3-0 Victoria lead, which remained at half time.
 
In the 68^th minute, Kilbey picked up a loose ball and her change of speed allowed her to expertly slot the ball between the last two Cascades defender and on to the streaking feet of Bignold. Bignold took a touch to her right at pace and calmly delivered the ball in the bottom left corner, past Cascades keeper Andrea Perkovic, who subbed in at the break.
 
Fraser Valley managed to deny Louwes a shut out as a speedy right side attack allowed Kelsey Mitchell some space. Mitchell's shallow cross found the feet of Dhaliwal at the near post and the slightest of touches beat Louwes to put Fraser Valley on the board, trailing 4-1, in the 74^th minute.
 
The Vikes had one more security marker thanks to first year Ringrose. An initial shot in ricocheted off a Cascades defender and back out to the feet of Ringrose, who took one touch for control and another to volley and ultimately secure a 5-1 win for the Vikes.
 
"That gives us a little bit of confidence," said David about the Vikes' first win of the season. "When we start (the season) it's tough with the opponents that we have as early as we always do and sometimes your confidence slides a little bit even though you might be playing well. You're not getting the three points and you start second guessing yourself and wondering a little bit and today I think this was just a great performance for us. Our team can play and I think we might surprise a few people."
 
The Vikes will regroup from their mainland road trip and return to the island for the next two weekends, hosting Calgary and Lethbridge on Sept. 14-15 and Thompson Rivers and UBC Okanagan on Sept. 21-22. All games will be broadcast live at canadawest.tv while tickets are available online at govikesgo.com/tickets.
 
SCORING SUMMARY
            1          2          F
UFV:    0          1:         1
UVIC:   3          2:         5
 
GAME MVPs
UFV: #17 Gurneet Dhaliwal
UVIC: #5 Katie Carrothers