WEEKEND RECAP | MAR 5-8

Trojans women’s doubles win gold at CCAA badminton nationals

After an impressive ACAC badminton campaign, several Trojans badminton teams headed to Canada’s East Coast for the national championship.

Hosted by the University of New Brunswick Saint John in Saint John, N.B., the CCAA Badminton Championships took place from Thursday, March 5, to Saturday, March 7.

Representing the Trojans were Emma Grabowski and Samantha Tran in women’s singles, Mono Suttinon and Paul Ouano in men’s singles, and ACAC women’s doubles champions Archelle Ouana and Nana Amnutkkittikul in women’s doubles.

The Trojans took home three medals back to Calgary from Saint John.

Ouana and Amnutkkittikul captured the gold medal in women’s doubles, defeating Shruti Joshi and Sherry Wu of Humber College.

The Trojans powerhouse fell behind in the first game 21-15 but bounced back to take the next two games 21-16 and 21-14.

Suttinon took home the bronze medal for the Trojans.

After winning the first game 21-12, his opponent Vaibhav Bhatta of the host UNBSJ Seawolves withdrew due to injury, handing Suttinon the bronze medal.

On Tuesday, March 10, Trojans first-year Bangkok, Thailand, player Amnutkkittikul was awarded one of the ACAC athletes of the week after her impressive performance in the national championship.

The Trojans headed back to Calgary with two bronze medals and one gold medal after a successful CCAA badminton season.

Women’s basketball falls short of bronze medal in ACAC championships

The Trojans women’s basketball team hadn’t lost a regular-season game since Jan. 15.

Currently on an eight-game win streak, the Trojans turned their season around to finish in first place in the ACAC women’s basketball south standings heading into the ACAC championships.

Hosted by Briercrest College in Caronport, Sask., the ACAC women’s basketball championships took place from Thursday, March 5, to Saturday, March 7.

Before the championships tipped off, several Trojans players were honoured as all-conference players, including Kitawna Sparks on the women’s south first team and Kyler Varga on the women’s south second team.

Trojans veteran Ava Kearl was also voted south defensive player of the year.

Wrapping the awards ceremony was Trojans head coach Steve Shoults, winning south coach of the year.

The Trojans opened their playoff run on Thursday afternoon against the University of Alberta Augustana Vikings.

At halftime, the Trojans comfortably led 39-28.

The Vikings rallied for a third- and fourth-quarter comeback but fell short as the Trojans secured the opening-day victory 66-61.

Sparks recorded a staggering 16-point, 19-rebound double-double for the Trojans in the win, sending them to the semifinals against provincial rival NAIT Ooks on Friday afternoon.

The two teams went back and forth in the lead in the first two quarters, leading to the Trojans being up 24-23 at the half.

Putting up 18 points in the third quarter and 30 in the fourth quarter, the Ooks offence was relentless, winning 71-57 and sending the Trojans to play for bronze on Saturday night.

Sparks recorded her second double-double in as many games against the Ooks, recording 13 points and 11 rebounds.

On Saturday, the Trojans took on the Concordia University Thunder for bronze.

By halftime, the Thunder led 37-34.

Narrowly outscoring the Trojans in the third and fourth quarters, the Thunder took a 77-71 win, securing the bronze medal and finishing the Trojans season in fourth place.

The Trojans had two players with double doubles on the night.

Veteran guard Kyler Varga putting up 11 points and 10 rebounds and Sparks recording her third in a row with 20 points and 12 rebounds.

Men’s basketball wins bronze after 21-0 regular season

In one of the greatest regular seasons in Trojans athletics history, the Trojans men’s basketball team finished 21-0 and was ranked No. 1 in CCAA men’s basketball.

Hosted by Lakeland College in Lloydminster, Sask., the ACAC men’s basketball championships took place from Thursday, March 5, to Saturday, March 7.

Trojans players and staff took home multiple awards at the ACAC men’s basketball awards ceremony.

Killian Yopa and Marcus Masters were named to the all-conference south first team, while Cam Carter and Marc-Denault Gabriel were selected to the south second team.

Carter was also named south defensive player of the year after an outstanding defensive season.

To wrap up the ceremony, Masters took home south player of the year and Trojans head coach Matthew Daley won south coach of the year.

The Trojans started their playoff campaign against the Concordia University of Edmonton Thunder on Thursday afternoon.

By halftime, the league-best Trojans led 53-37.

The Trojans flexed their offensive depth, winning 113-73 to advance to the semifinals.

Killian Yopa led the offence for the Trojans in the dominating win, recording a 23-point, 15-rebound double-double.

In the first semifinal of the day, the Trojans took on the Keyano Huskies.

It was a low-scoring game at the half, with the Huskies outscoring the Trojans 29-22.

The Huskies rallied with a 27-point fourth quarter to upset the Trojans 66-63.

With the loss, the Trojans battled the host Lakeland College Rustlers on Saturday afternoon for bronze.

The Trojans jumped out to a 44-38 lead at halftime in a packed Rustlers gym.

A strong 28-point fourth quarter saw the Trojans win 89-80 to capture the ACAC bronze medal.

Marcus Masters led the away side in points with 23, wrapping up the Trojans basketball season.

Men’s hockey sweeps Ooks in first round

After an impressive end to the regular season, the Trojans men’s hockey team took on the NAIT Ooks in the first round of the ACAC men’s hockey playoffs in a best-of-three series.

Game 1 took place on Friday, March 6, at WinSport Arena in Calgary.

Carter Blitz scored the lone goal in the first frame just one minute and 10 seconds into the period.

The Ooks equalized through Ethan Leyer early in the second period.

After a Jace Moffat slashing penalty that sent the Ooks to the power play midway through the period, Zach Cain scored a shorthanded goal for the Trojans to make it 2-1.

Just over one minute later, Tristan Taylor once again tied the game for the Ooks.

With less than one minute left in the period, Colby Ball put the Trojans ahead 3-2 going into the third.

Ryan Neumann put the Trojans up 4-2 15 minutes into the third period.

Ooks forward Jackson Hassman added an empty-net goal with two minutes left in the period, but it wasn’t enough for the Ooks as the Trojans held on for a 4-3 win.

The following day, the two teams met at NAIT in Edmonton.

Austin Reschny opened the scoring with two power-play goals seven minutes apart to give the Trojans a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes.

Six minutes into the second period, Dylan Clark added another power-play goal for the Trojans, followed by a Tate Schofer goal to make it 4-0.

Brody Simpson added an empty-net goal for the Trojans in the third period to end the game at 5-0, ending the Ooks’ season and sweeping the series 2-0.

Next for the Trojans is a best-of-five series matchup against the league-leading Red Deer Polytechnic Kings.

Game 1 takes place on Friday, March 13, at 7 p.m. in Red Deer, with Game 2 the following night at 7:15 p.m. at WinSport Arena.

Game 3 takes place the following week on Friday, March 20, at 7 p.m. in Red Deer.

If necessary, Game 4 is on Saturday, March 21, at 7 p.m. at WinSport Arena and Game 5 the following day at 5 p.m. in Red Deer.

Women’s futsal clinches first place, men miss out on championships

Playoff spots were on the line this past weekend as the second ACAC futsal tournament was hosted by Ambrose University in Calgary from Friday, March 6, to Saturday, March 7.

Women

Undefeated on the season so far, the Trojans took on the Lethbridge Polytechnic Kodiaks on Friday afternoon.

Veteran striker Rachelle O’Leary put the Trojans up 1-0 heading into halftime.

The Trojans added two goals in the second half from Sofia Sproule and Amy Fallows to secure a 3-0 win.

On Saturday, the Trojans played two matches.

The first was against the Medicine Hat College Rattlers.

Gabby Cavezza scored for the Trojans and Alivia Rybchinski scored for the Rattlers as the two teams went into halftime level.

Meagan Wiebe, O’Leary and Isabel Vega all added goals in the second half for the Trojans, taking a 4-1 win.

Saturday night’s match had the Trojans against the host Ambrose Lions.

In the first 10 minutes, the Trojans found themselves up 3-0 with two goals coming from Sproule and another from Vega.

Kalli Pilon earned a goal back for the Lions midway through the first half.

Five minutes later, Trojans veteran and Canada national futsal team trialist Nikki Charlton added a goal to make it 4-1.

Just over 20 seconds later, Maggie Saunders scored for the Lions to cut the lead to 4-2.

To cap off a seven-goal first half, Trojans rookie Selena Alain made it 5-2 for the Trojans.

O’Leary scored her third goal in as many games just under two minutes into the second half.

The Trojans went on to add five more goals in the half from Sofia Pena, Alain, Cavezza, O’Leary and Vega to finish their weekend with a commanding 11-2 win over the host Lions.

With the three wins on the weekend, the Trojans women’s futsal team sits in first place in the ACAC women’s futsal south standings with a 7-0-1 record.

Next for the Trojans are the ACAC women’s futsal championships from March 20-22 hosted by Medicine Hat College.

The No. 1 seed Trojans will take on the Kodiaks in their first game on Friday, March 20, at 2:15 p.m. and will look to bring the banner back to Calgary.

Men

The Trojans men’s futsal team looked to advance to the ACAC championship this weekend.

In their first match, the Trojans took on the Kodiaks on Friday night.

The Kodiaks went up 2-0 by halftime with early goals from Mazlo Lorenzo and Emiliano Garcia Velarde.

They added four more goals in the second half to go up 6-0 on the Trojans.

Alec Wells provided the spark for the Trojans with eight minutes left in the game, scoring to make it 6-1.

Trojans captain Miguel Mendoza and rookie Ben Odd added two more late goals as the Trojans fell 6-3 to the Kodiaks in their opening game of the weekend.

On Saturday afternoon, the Trojans took on the Medicine Hat College Rattlers.

Trojans rookie Dale Reas-Do put the Calgary side up 1-0 four minutes into the game.

Just two minutes before halftime, Rattlers striker Tate Mugisha equalized.

De’SHaunt Gelinas-Ca scored two minutes into the second half to make it 2-1.

Trojans veteran Ty Ritchie tied the game again two minutes later.

Both teams scored late in the second half, with the Rattlers goal coming from Aleksa Bijelic and Reas-Do adding his second of the game for the Trojans to end the match at 3-3.

In the final match of the weekend, the Trojans beat the Lions 3-2, but upon further review from the ACAC, the Trojans were forced to forfeit the match due to an ineligible player, resulting in a 1-0 loss.

As a result, the Trojans men’s futsal team will miss out on the ACAC championship, with the final wild-card spot going to the Ambrose Lions.

Another strong week for Trojans esports

The SAIT Academy squad won its match on March 10 against LCLL Black LoL in League of Legends 5v5.

Also on the night, the SAIT varsity quad took down Ferris State Crimson LoL.

In Overwatch Varsity Plus, the SAIT OW varsity team was defeated by Maryville Academy Overwatch 3-0.

Also competing that night was the SAIT OW Academy, which won 3-0 against the Radford University Trailblazers.

In Rocket League 3v3 Varsity Plus, the Trojans varsity team took down Peace RL 3-0.