February 4th, 2025

Kodiaks soccer teams face tough task at championships


By Lethbridge Herald on October 23, 2024.

Herald Photo by Justin Seward Lethbridge Polytechnic Kodiaks Jordan Wright gets tripped up as she is battling for the ball with Kiara Periard-Endel of the University of Alberta- Augustana Vikings during Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference women’s soccer action last weekend in Lethbridge.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Polytechnic Kodiaks soccer teams begin their quest for league banners tomorrow up in Grande Prairie at the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference soccer championships. 

Each team is going in as third seeds in the South Division and begin the championships against Keyano in their quarter-final match-ups.

The LP men’s team are going into the championships off of a 5-0 loss to the Medicine Hat College on Sunday, which drop them to third in the division.

“They were really disappointed with themselves on Sunday and then last night (Tuesday night) we had a really good practice out in Raymond,” said Sean Carey, head coach.

“We went out there and the boys seem to be very focused again now and they’ve seen the mistakes that they’re making.”

Carey noticed the intensity and work at that  practice being at a top level.

  “If they bring that to the field on Friday , I feel like they can prevail and get right through the weekend,” said Carey.

The men’s strength going into championships will be their work ethic.

“If we’re not working hard all over the field, that’s when we start to have break downs,” said Carey.

“We watched enough game film, we’ve talked about it as a group, we know what we can do and if we can go ahead and up our work ethic and ability to close down, then I feel like we can prevail.”

The Kodiaks are facing a Keyano Huskies team that is ranked in the top-15 in Canada and will look to repeat as league champions.

“They’ll be organized, they’ll be structured, they’ll be hungry because they want to repeat,” said Carey.

“I expect Keyano to be (a) really, really  tough game and we’re going to have to be on our game to be able to get a result out of it,” said Carey.

Their quarterfinal is at 3 p.m. on Friday with the winner moving on to play Red Deer Polytechnic in a Saturday semi-final.

The Kodiak women’s will look to use their strength of scoring.

“We create a lot of  opportunities, we’ve got lots of like skill,” Carey.

The Kodiak women will have to have a strong defensive side.

“Three of the top four scorers in the league are all from Keyano and we know of them and we’ve been up against them,” said Carey.

“This will be the third year I think in a row now we’ll  be playing against Keyano in the quarter-finals and at some point in the championship. So we’re used them (and) they’re used to us and it’ll be a big battle.”

The Kodiak women’s team face Keyano on Friday at 12:30 p.m.

Both Kodiak soccer  teams have made ACAC championships for six consecutive years and have only brought one banner home.

“It’s time to start bringing home hardware and from there it helps recruit players for next year and so on,” said Carey.

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