Women's Futsal Huskies advance to ACAC Women's Futsal Championship

The Keyano Huskies Women's Futsal team will play for a medal in their sport this season.

Wins over the Portage College Voyageurs and Lakeland Rustlers last weekend in Lac La Biche booked the Huskies' ticket to the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Championship in late March.

"It's been awesome," Head Coach Niels Slotboom said. "They followed the game plan to a tee.

"They all show up and when our team shows up and executes, it's pretty hard to stop, which has been what the regular message has really been in all the four games we've had so far."

The opening game of their second weekend saw the Huskies claim an 8-1 win against the Voyageurs. Emma Bendera led the way with a hat trick while Selena Arima, Madison Tyson, Marissa Mestre, Sophie Griffiths, and Blanca Palavecino also found the back of the net.

"That's the strength of our team," Slotboom continued. "Everybody shows up when they need to and we've got production from different players every single game, which is our strength.

"It's our depth and the girls show up and they're willing to do whatever it is that's necessary and it's great to see it pay off for different people every single time."

In the second match, the Huskies edged the Rustlers by a 3-2 score. Katelyn Boxall scored her first goal with the Huskies while Arima and Griffiths notched their second goals of the day.

"Our sport, the best teams don't always win so results don't always come with what you see on the court, but in this way it did," Slotboom said.

The Huskies Head Coach went on to note that while all three teams looked better than they had in the previous two weeks, the Huskies were able to take it to another level. Additionally, with the teams in a more comfortable state after their first two games, Slotboom said his side had to do more to earn the results they did.

"Our girls really brought it up to a higher level than those teams," Slotboom said. "Although the scores were very similar in the first weekend, the girls definitely had to work for it more."

The wins qualified the Huskies for the 2022 ACAC Women's Futsal Championship, scheduled to be hosted by the Rustlers at the end of March.

There, they'll take on the SAIT Trojans, NAIT Ooks, and another yet-to-be qualified team from the South Division, consisting of the Ambrose Lions, Lethbridge Kodiaks, and Medicine Hat College Rattlers.