No fairytale Fanshawe finish this time; Just a cruel and bitter end.

One clutch lightning-quick strike by Laura Ellis of the Concordia Thunder sealed the Falcons' silver-medal fate at the Canadian college women's soccer nationals Saturday.

"My heart definitely sank in my chest," Fanshawe's Jory-Lynn Uyl said. "We were so close."
Only one minute from sudden death, Ellis buried her winner deep into added time at the end of the second half.

"It put a big damper on everything," Falcons veteran Chelsey Kudrasovs said.
Fanshawe couldn't secure a throw-in deep in its own half. It spelled disaster.

"We had plenty of chances to clear it," Falcons coach Martin Painter said. "We couldn't, they capitalized and give them credit.

"But it's definitely a tough way to lose."

Ellis' shot went off the post and in behind nearly unbeatable keeper Emily Gillet for a 2-1 Concordia victory at the Ontario Soccer Centre in Vaughan.

"It was an unstoppable shot," Painter said.

It halted an unlikely run for Fanshawe, the first Ontario college to make it to the national gold-medal match since the tournament started in 1991.

"We were looked at as underdogs heading into the tournament and that was what we rallied around the whole time," Kudrasovs said.

It was the first national title for Concordia, the Edmonton school located right off Wayne Gretzky Drive.

It was certainly a Great One for them, but a bummer for the Falcons.

"We had 15 rookies on our roster this year," Painter said. "We have a very young team, but they came together and played great soccer in the end.

"I'm super proud of them. A silver medal at nationals is nothing to be ashamed of."

Those first-year Falcons now have the big-game experience and the sting of falling short to motivate them.

"We lose our goalie (Gillet) and she was so good for us, but there are others," Uyl said. "This was the biggest tournament I've played in and these girls on this team were great.

"We got so close. We jelled at the right time."

Right now, the future isn't so easy to accept for the final-year players. Kudrasovs gave her heart and soul in her last college go-round.

She was the player of the match in Fanshawe's shutout win over Atlantic champ Mount Saint Vincent on Wednesday. Then, the Falcons reached a dizzying high after beating top Quebec team College Francois Xavier Garneau in penalty kicks on Friday to qualify for the championship tilt.

"You look back and it would've probably been better if we played that long game first and had a day off to rest in between," Kudrasovs said. "But when you're playing for the gold medal, you just suck it up.

"It's one game and you just overcome it."

Both teams dealt with a stout wind.

Concordia took an early first-half lead but the Falcons, with the wind in their face, got a late goal by Uyl to tie it. Ellis' winner came with the wind at Fanshawe's back.

"You don't see that very often," Kudrasovs said. "We had our chances in the second half. We just didn't get the goal that we needed."

"I think it was more their defence than anything else," Uyl added. "They were aggressive. They didn't give us much and got to the ball first most of the time at the end.

"We had some good balls, but couldn't chase them down."

Concordia became the second Alberta team to win gold.

British Columbia has been dominant in the tournament's history, but its rep, Kwantlen Polytechnic settled for bronze yesterday with a 1-0 shootout win over Garneau.

The 2010 nationals will be held in Edmonton and run by the Northern Alberta Institute of
Technology.

(Courtesy of: ryan.pyette@sunmedia.ca)

FINISH FIFTH ALTHOUGH NOT GIVING UP ANY GOALS IN REGULATION

The Humber Hawks, who have played well despite two round robin heartbreaking losses on penalty kicks, responded well on Saturday and defeated the Mount Saint Vincent University Mystics by a score of 2-0.

The game, which decided fifth/sixth placement, was the opening game at the 2009 Canadian Colleges Athletic Association Women’s Soccer National Championships.

Humber entered the contest shorthanded as Keyla Moreno, the OCAA Player of the Year, and a number of other starters were unable to play due to injury.

Lucia Sinisi broke through for Humber’s first goal in more than 275 minutes of play as she buried a shot from five yards out during a scramble in the Mystic crease. The first half saw many scoring chances from the Nova Scotia squad, but Hawk Keeper Rose Mary Ormeno turned them away every time. At half the score stood at 1-0 for the Hawks.

The second half was relatively quiet until the thirty five minute mark as Humber’s Brittany Szcerbakow put the game out of reach as she knocked in a rebound off a corner kick.
Rose Mary Ormeno recorded her third consecutive shut-out.

Following the championship matches, the CCAA honoured their Championship Tournament All-stars. Represented on the team from Ontario were the following:

Brittany Szcerbakow Humber College OCAA
Tanya Bieshuizen Fanshawe College OCAA
Chelsey Kudrazovs Fanshawe College OCAA
Jory Lynn Uyl Fanshawe College OCAA

2009 Canadian Colleges Athletic Association Women’s Soccer Fair Play Award:
Humber College OCAA

NOTE: 2009 was the first time in OCAA history a women's soccer team has qualified for the championship final since the tournament's inception in 1991.

(Courtesy of London Free Press/Humber College/CCAA)