On 20 February, the MGCI girls’ indoor soccer team took a trip to Varsity Centre to participate in the University of Toronto Challenge Cup. It was a very competitive tournament, with sixteen schools from all over Toronto taking part. Games were played with six members a side, with 20 minute halves.

The Cougars’ first round-robin game was played against University of Toronto Schools. An early goal by Shela Qiu, followed by two more goals by Michelle Nyamekye served to bring MGCI its first win of 3-0.

The second game was played against Richview CI. After a hard battle, the Cougars came out on top with a 1-0 win, again scored by Nyamekye.

The last round-robin game was tied at 0-0, with goalie Tania Nadruth making several crucial saves.

The girls’ team then moved onto the quarter-final match against Senator O’Connor College School. A tie of 0-0 led the teams to Penalty Kicks. Out of the six players who represented each team, Rebecca Wong scored the only goal, thus allowing the Cougars to advance to the semi-finals with a win of 1-0.

The Cougars then played Leaside High School, with halves shortened to 15 minutes due to time constraints. Although the girls played hard, they were unable to keep up their undefeated streak, with their first 0-3 loss of the day. Their final standing was third  place out of sixteen teams.

Mr. Graham, the coach who organized the team for a previous indoor tournament in December, was happy with the way the girls played. “During the round-robin games, we were very strong defensively, had nice goal-keeping, and scored when we had to score,” he commented. “But mostly, I thought we played very well as a team, since everyone was able to contribute to our final result.”

This tournament marks the end of the unofficial indoor soccer season, and girls interested in playing soccer in the future can look forward to the outdoor team coming up in the spring.