Written by Mason Bugaresti
The Carleton Ravens continued their stellar start to the 2022 season with an impressive 1-0 home win over the visiting Nipissing Lakers. With the win, the Ravens remain unbeaten on the season and have picked up 7 points from their opening 3 matches.
Nipissing’s attack came into this match with a staggering 13 goals in their first two matches, and they showed no signs of slowing down in the opening 10 minutes against the Ravens. The best of the early Laker chances came off the foot of Cassidy Brooks (Belfountain, Ont.) who struck a powerful shot with her right foot which was saved by Carleton goalkeeper Chloe Lachance-Soulard (Ottawa, Ont.) as the Ravens weathered the early storm.
As the Ravens began to find their footing in the opening half, attacking space in the midfield began to open up for Carleton. After winning possession in midfield, Salena Devellis (Barrie, Ont.) fed a beautiful through-ball to Chloe Doiron (Dieppe, NB.) who slotted it home to score her first as a Raven giving Carleton a 1-0 lead at the 17th-minute mark. Doiron nearly added another just on the cusp of halftime as she had a dangerous shot-on-target that required a strong two-handed save from the Nipissing keeper. After a solid 45 minutes, the Ravens took a 1-0 lead into the half at TAAG Park.
In the second half, Chloe Lachance-Soulard stole the show with several key saves that kept Carleton in front. The Carleton keeper made multiple desperation saves off of powerful long shots from the Lakers. Her most heroic effort came with 15 minutes remaining in the match where she stopped a flurry of Nipissing chances as the Lakers continued to send shots towards the Carleton goal.
Carleton coach Dom Oliveri praised Lachance-Soulard’s performance in his post-game press conference.
“She’s been doing it all year. She had a great game. To be fair, she made some really big saves for us, but we’ve been seeing it every day in training,” Oliveri said.
Oliveri was also impressed by his team’s tactical flexibility after playing a much more free-flowing match the week before against RMC.
“It’s something we’ve been trying to build for 5 years. It speaks to the type of player we have at Carleton. We have a great mix of players that can add offense or lock it down defensively.”
The Raven women hit the road for their next three matches. First Carleton heads to Toronto for a Sept. 24 game at Toronto Metropolitan University before taking on the University of Toronto on Sep. 25. The Ravens return to Ottawa for a Sept. 29 road rivalry showdown with the uOttawa Gee-Gees, before finally returning to TAAG Park for another meeting with uOttawa Oct. 2 at 1 p.m. Tickets are available now!
