A beautiful win was a longtime coming for the UNBC Timberwolves women, but they were finally able to secure it in the beautiful game on a beautiful October afternoon.
Before Sunday's 4-0 win over the Winnipeg Wesmen the T-wolves hadn't won a regular season soccer game in four years, including two seasons in the B.C. college league and two seasons in the Canada West conference of the CIS.
T-wolves captain Georgia Lahti joined the team four years ago when the winless drought began and she couldn't hide her tears after the final whistle went under the sunny skies at the North Cariboo Senior Soccer League field.
"It's like surreal," said Lahti. "I'm so happy. I also got an assist today and I haven't gotten a point in a really long time. I'm just really proud of our team, we've overcome a lot of challenges the past couple of years and we deserved it for sure."
The victory came almost four years to the day of their last league win - a 1-0 triumph over the UBC Okanagan Heat in the first of two games during the weekend of Oct. 10, 2009 in the B.C. Colleges Athletic Association. Lahti joined the T-wolves the following season, moving to Prince George from her home in Port Moody.
In the last four years the T-wolRves have gone through both lopsided and close losses, including their final season in the college league when they went through a goal-scoring drought.
Lahti said the struggles in their final college season didn't initially inspire much confidence when they entered the CIS in the fall of 2012, until Andy Cameron came on board as head coach. But, the T-wolves' inaugural season was tough as they suffered through several blowout losses (10-0, 11-0, 13-0).
This season, the T-wolves are more competitive with their worst defeat only a 4-0 setback, but even when the elusive win seemed within their grasp it slipped away with losses to Mount Royal and Calgary and a tie in Lethbridge.
"It's hard when you play and you know you should get results when you keep getting better and better," said the 21-year-old. "I'm sure next week we're going to come out guns blazing because we're just so proud of this win."
The T-wolves (1-7-2) wrap up their second season in the Canada West on the weekend with a pair of road games against the playoff-bound Saskatchewan Huskies (7-2-2) and the Regina Cougars (4-5-2). The Cougars are battling with Fraser Valley (3-4-3) and Mount Royal (3-6-1) for the final two playoff spots, but have dropped their last three games. The Manitoba Bisons (1-5-4) have a slim chance of a playoff spot.
Lahti said the seedling for the win against Winnipeg, also a second-year CIS team, was planted in Friday's 0-0 draw with the Bisons - a team they lost 11-0 to last season.
"We got a point Friday and it was just kind of a catalyst for things," said Lahti. "From the warmup we were all just ready and focused."
Sydney Hall, converted from defence to striker this season for the T-wolves, sparked the offensive output when she took a pass from Lahti and bulldozed past Wesmen goalkeeper Margo Henry to give UNBC a 1-0 lead. About 12 minutes later, Hall setup Sidney Roy for a goal and then scored her second of the game seven minutes later to give the T-wolves a commanding 3-0 advantage at halftime. Sydney Wilson added an unassisted goal early in the second half to complete the scoring when she grabbed her own rebound and banged the ball in off the crossbar.
The T-wolves had several chances to add to their lead, but the main goal was to finish strong defensively and get keeper Jordan Hall the shutout.
Moving Sydney Hall to striker was only one of the off-season adjustments the T-wolves made to improve the team, said Lahti. Coach Cameron also inserted three rookies - Jessica Erickson, Fiona Raymond and Tianna Pius - into the starting lineup, which strengthened the wing positions where the T-wolves were weak the previous season.
Hall said she enjoys playing up front with Sidney Roy and Sydney Wilson and now that the T-wolves have a win other teams won't be looking past them.
"For us it's a huge milestone, we finally got it and now we're just going to keep pushing and getting better and better," said the 19-year-old. "Teams obviously don't take you seriously when you haven't won a game, hopefully this is the beginning of something new."
An attitude coach Cameron shares. He said now that the weight of the four-year winless drought is off the T-wolves' backs they can work on moving forward in setting new goals, like finishing strong in Saskatchewan on the weekend.
"You could tell it was coming and it's nice to get it done," said Cameron. "Now we can move forward."
