Officially, Memorial Sea-Hawks soccer teams are ending a two-week break when they play Atlantic University Sport (AUS) conference games in Nova Scotia this weekend.
But of the 40-plus players who are on the Sea-Hawks men's or women's rosters, most have hardly been idle.
Of the 21 players on Memorial’s women’s team, all but one participated in last week’s Jubilee Trophy Canadian women’s soccer championships in metro St. John’s.
Thirteen had suited up with Feildians, which finished fourth in the tourney, and seven more with Newfoundland’s other entry in the competition, eventual seventh-place finisher Holy Cross.
The exception was the Memorial women’s only player not from this province, Nova Scotian Zaida Pierce.
As for the Sea-Hawk men, eight of them played with Holy Cross, Newfoundland and Labrador’s lone entry in the Challenge Trophy national men’s championship, also held in the metro region last week. And Jake Stanford, the head coach of the Memorial men, was coach for both Holy Cross entries in the Canadian competitions.
The two teams are in Sydney, N.S., today to take on the Capers.
The Cape Breton women sit in second place in the AUS standings and have already secured a spot in the playoffs. The Capers only loss came to the league-leading Acadia Axewomen, whom the fifth-place Lady Hawks (4-2-2) held to a scoreless tie in their last game, played Sept. 29 at King George V Park in St. John’s.
Memorial’s opposition will be just as tough in its second game of their Nova Scotia trip, Sunday afternoon in Antigonish. Heading into weekend play, the St. Francis Xavier-X-Women hadn’t lost any their first nine games this season, with six wins and three ties.
It will be sort of a shared challenge for the two Memorial teams.
That’s because the Memorial men (3-3-2), will be facing the top two teams in the AUS. Cape Breton sits atop the standings at 7-0-1, while the St. FX X-Men have a record of 7-1-1,
