VANCOUVER — A couple of seasons ago, while standing at a figurative crossroads in her soccer career, Ally Williamson decided that the only way she was going to be able to preserve her love for the game was to take the road less travelled.
Thankfully for her, a roundabout path filled with a lot of self-examination has led her back to the place she always wanted to be, as the last line of defence on a CIS team attempting to win a national championship.
On Thursday, Williamson will make the 19th start of her season as keeper for Trinity Western, as Langley’s Spartans open play at the 2015 CIS national championship tournament, one which is being hosted by the UBC Thunderbirds, the school she wound up walking away from when she made her decision to leave the game following the 2013 campaign.
“It has been great, after a year of not playing, to be able to put a jersey on and play on a team again,” Williamson said Wednesday in advance of pre-tournament training at her old park, UBC’s Thunderbird Stadium. “When I left, I wasn’t planning on playing soccer anymore. In my last year at UBC, there were a lot of changes that had gone on in the program, and for me personally it just got to be a chore to be on the field. When it got to that point, I thought it was better to quit while I still had the desire to play the game for fun. I didn’t ever want it to get to the point where I never wanted to play again.”
For Williamson, the move towards self-preservation was deftly timed, and as the No. 5-seeded Spartans open play at the national tournament Thursday (1:30 p.m.) against No. 4 seed Cape Breton, it is one that has a happy ending.
After sitting out last season as a transfer, she has started all 18 of TWU’s games this season en route to a 13-2-3 overall mark. Williamson played all but 18 of 1,617 minutes and led the conference in every major statistical category, including save percentage (.900), goals against average (0.43) and goals allowed (6).
“I think that she has shown she is the best goalkeeper in the nation,” said TWU head coach Graham Roxburgh of Williamson, who upon leaving UBC eventually made her way to Trinity Western after she began playing for a senior women’s club team that included several former and current Spartans.
“She had to sit out last year because she was transferring,” continued Roxburgh, “but she still trained with us and there was no sense from her of ‘I’m not playing this year, so I’ll buy in next season.’ From day one, she made everyone here better, and everyone respects her because she has worked so hard for all of this to come true.”
Williamson’s emergence this season has been welcome for a TWU team which last season, seemed set to become dynasty.
Aiming for its third straight national title and its fourth in seven seasons, the Spartans rolled into the title game in Quebec City but were subsequently rolled 5-0 in the title match by the Laval Rouge et Or, who are part of the field here in Vancouver this week and riding a 33-game unbeaten streak.
It’s obviously cart-before-the-horse talk to bring up the built-in plot-lines surrounding a potential UBC vs. TWU championship match Sunday in which Williamson would face her former team in a battle for the most CIS women’s soccer titles ever.
But in lieu of all that, there is reason to celebrate the tremendous campaigns enjoyed by both the Spartans and the revitalized Thunderbirds, and the vibe they created in local Canada West circles this season.
With new head coach Marisa Kovacs at the helm, UBC won the conference’s Pacific Division regular season title with an 11-1-2 record, two points ahead of 10-1-3 TWU. The Spartans only two losses this season have come against the ‘Birds, 2-0 in the conference opener, and 1-0 in last Sunday’s Canada West final title tilt. In between, the teams drew 0-0.
“In some ways, it’s nice to have that rivalry back,” said Roxburgh, whose team went 8-4-3 against UBC from 2008-14 but is 0-2-1 the last three. “Marisa has done a great job of re-instilling the belief and giving them a real sense of conviction.”
All that said, a Spartans’ team which has been led by its veteran core of Williamson, midfielders Vanessa Kovacs and Ali Oliverio, and forward Krista Gommeringer, has its own mandate, and that is to win a record sixth national title.
The Spartans know they are not the favourites, but they have 10 players who were part of both the 2012 and ’13 CIS championship teams, and Williamson isn’t even one of them.
Just think about that for a moment.
CIS WOMEN’S SOCCER
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Nov. 12-15 at UBC-Thunderbird Stadium
THURSDAY
11 a.m. — No. 1 Laval vs. No. 8 Laurier
1:30 p.m. — No. 5 Trinity Western vs. No. 4 Cape Breton
4:30 p.m. — No. 3 Queen’s vs. No. 6 Sherbrooke
7 p.m. — No. 2 UBC vs. No. 7 Calgary
(Semifinals 1:30, 3:30 p.m. Saturday, championship final 4:30 p.m. Sunday)
