ROUGH FIRST LOSS AN IMPORTANT BUILDING BLOCK FOR SEASON FOR VOYAGEURS

LAC LA BICHE – Smoked out on Saturday; smoked on Sunday. That would be an oversimplified reading of the Portage College Voyageurs' past weekend. A day after their season opener against Concordia University of Edmonton was postponed due to wildfire smoke, the women's soccer squad held their home opener against NAIT at the Bold Center field and lost 16-0. Sierra Klack with three goals and five assists led the way for the Ooks, with Jyla Eriandio adding a hattrick as well. Clearly not the start to the season that anyone on the home side was hoping for.

"Obviously, we need to recalibrate," said Head Coach Macky Singh, the day after the lopsided loss. "We've taken a break today and then tomorrow we'll come back to recovery."

On the surface, the one-sided score isn't flattering. However, the experienced collegiate head coach noted, there are important nuances to consider. Given that this was his inexperienced squad's first actual game of the year – exhibition or regular season –  that they only had 13 healthy players on the roster, and that they were playing one of the top teams in the league with a lot of returning players – the result wasn't completely unexpected.

"The players, they put forward a good effort," said Singh. "You know, I thought they really worked hard."

With another test coming up almost immediately, a Thursday home game against Lakeland, Singh will spend the next couple of days building up his team's stamina and continuing to teach the fundamentals of the beautiful game. He has the utmost confidence in his players and is optimistic better days are on the horizon.

"We're only going to get better from here…It will take time for them to adjust and learn the game and understand how the game is played kind of thing and then hopefully they can apply some of the things that we do in training into the game," he said.

NAIT Player of the Game: Sierra Klack

Portage Player of the Game: Brooklyn Haub