Capilano Blues Off-Season Forecast

The last time the Capilano Blues women’s soccer team walked off the pitch they had a PACWEST silver medal draped around their neck. Coming into the 2019 championship tournament the Blues were the third ranked team and upset the second seed Douglas Royals in penalty kicks.

The Blues are set to open the PACWEST season this Saturday afternoon in a rematch of the 2019 gold medal tilt when they host the VIU Mariners at 1:00pm.

What’s New with the Blues:

Most of the “newness” of the Blues will be seen at Lillooet Park. There are new dugouts for both teams to help protect players from the rain and new World Cup netting has been added between the pipes. Head coach Dennis Kindel returns and has a handful of new recruits which should see playing time this coming weekend.

Key Grad:

Mehar Waraich – her veteran leadership will be missed after spending four years with the Blues and logging a lot of minutes playing all 12 games in 2019.

Important Recruits:

Taylor Colby – a forward from Chilliwack and graduate of GW Graham standing at 5’7.

Kayla Campbell – a 5’6 forward from Burnaby Central enrolled in the Business Administration program.

Maya Smith – she joins the Blues after graduating from Terry Fox and is a 5’2 midfielder taking Kinesiology.

What They Needed:

Following the 2019 campaign the Blues need to secure their goalkeeping position and now feel they have done that. Former Douglas Royal keeper Alexa Gazzola as joined Sabrina Lam who has returned to the Blues. New recruits Linda Aardmma and Megan Thitchener are also in the mix.

Counting On:

Catrina Olstrom – entering her fourth season with the Blues she will be looked upon to create some offensive chances. In 2019 she played all 12 games and scored once.

Claire Ye – speaking of offence, Ye was the Blues’ leading scorer in 2019 finding the back of the net four times. She enters her fourth season and is the sparkplug for the Blues offence.

Alanah Dulong – the midfielder enters her third season after playing all 12 games in 2019 and scoring a goal.

The Blues host the defending PACWEST champion VIU Mariners on Saturday afternoon before visiting the Douglas Royals on Sunday afternoon at noon in a rematch of the 2019 semi-finals.