NORTH BAY, ON - With the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Women’s Soccer Championship set for this upcoming weekend at Queen’s University, the league has announced the 2004 all-stars as selected by the coaches.

Third year goalkeeper Anna Violo and rookie Stephanie Muldoon were named to the North/South All-star Team. Violo has been named to the all-star team twice in as many years.

Muldoon had a terrific year rookie season starting at the midlfield position and scoring 2 goals (7 points) in nine games (762 min.) played.

Two-time all-star Violo played in 7 games for the Lady Lakers in backstopping them to two wins. She posted a 2.857 goals against average and recorded 56 saves on 67 shots faced.

The recognition of All-star is well deserved by both players.

NORTH BAY, ON - The Lady Lakers ended their season with a convincing 2-1 win over their northern rival Laurentian Lady Vees.

The Lakers defeated the Lady Vees in a hard fought game that saw a couple of cards handed out to both sides.

Nipissing would head into the break after a dominate first half and with a 2-0 lead on goals by midfielder Amanda Carvalho, and striker Lauren Glover off a beautiful free kick, that bended down inside the near post.

Laurentian came out strong in the second half looking to get on the back into the match but tough defense from Jessica Barbuto and solid goalkeeping from Kristine Snedden helped the Lakers hold off the pressure that had Laurentian strike four corner kicks at their goal. Jolene Fournier would score the eventual lone goal for the Lady Vees.

“The girls have had some tough luck this year. We were the better team today, and it was a nice way to end the season,” said assistant coach Dan Kapintachuk.

The Lady Lakers rounded out their season with 9 pts (3-7-0) five points back of Laurentian who are in 3rd place in the North division.

NORTH BAY, ON - When the Nipissing University Lady Lakers recruited Lauren Glover of Oakville, the striker was expected to provide some much-needed offence.

It’s taken some time, but Glover found the range Sunday afternoon with two goals as Nipissing defeated McMaster Marauders in OUA women’s soccer action.

Glover’s first two goals of the season could not have come at a better time.

The Lady Lakers needed a win or else it could have been the end of their season.

But now, although they are in fourth sport in the Northern Division, they are back in contention for a playoff berth.

“It felt good,” Glover said after the game. “We needed a win badly. And we’ll win those two away games, six points.”

Glover scored the winner when she broke in on goaltender Natalie Fitzpatrick and put the ball behind her, giving the Lakers a 2-0 lead at the 52-minute mark.

Glover opened the scoring at the 29-minute mark.

Glover also suffered a solar plexus injury, which caused her some breathing problems throughout the game.

Julie Giardini put McMaster back in the game slipping the ball behind goaltender Anna Violo at the 63-minute mark.

Bernadette Dec put the game away, heading the ball into the net with 10 minutes remaining.

“We deserved to win today,” Dec said. “We’ll now be pumped for our next game and our spirits will be up. I’ve scored header goals before, but they’ve been nicer than this one. But we played well defensively and now we just have to win. We always have to be tough out there and get the ball first.”

Lady Laker Head coach Vito Castiglione said his club turned in an awesome game.

“We played the full 90 minutes and also scored first,” he said. “We always seem to play better on Sunday after we’ve played a Saturday game.

“Maybe we’ll play all of our games next year on Sunday,” he added jokingly.

On Saturday, the Brock Badgers scored three goals in the final 22 minutes of play to upset the Lakers 3-0.

“I thought we deserved a better fate,” said Lady Laker head coach Vito Castiglione. “We played them tough for 75 minutes. It was that kind of the game where the team scoring first would win.”

“The girls are bit down now, but we will be back for Sunday’s game against McMaster. We just have to start putting some wins together and Sunday’s game is really big for us,’ he added.

Brock opened the scoring in the 68th minute on a goal from Meaghan Lawrence.

Melanie Mol made it 2-0 in the 76th minute, as she connected from 28 yards out sailing the ball over outstretched Nipissing goaltender Anna Marie Violo.

Two minutes later, Mol her second goal of the game.

Tiffany Scriver recorded her third shutout of the season. In four games this season, Scriver has an impressive 0.50 GAA.

Violo made a great save on a penalty kick early in the second half and had no chance on any of the three goals.

Dianne Landry put in a solid perfomance for the Lakers in a game in which assistant coach David Bitonti feels "was her best ever."

"Dianne played an amazing game for us. She was solid defensively and distributed the ball well. She was tough and won every ball she challenged for. Today was Dianne's best ever game in a Lakers uniform." said Bitonti. Landy was named Lakers player of the game.

The Lakers have six points and trail third-place Toronto Blues by four points for the final playoff spot in the Northern Division.

Their remaining away games are against Toronto Oct. 16 and York, Oct. 17. They close out at home Oct. 23 against Sudbury Laurentian Voyageurs.

View the Photo Gallery from weekend. - Courtesy of BayToday.ca!

NORTH BAY, ON - The Lady Lakers didn’t start the road trip as planned against the Guelph Gryphons, losing 4-0. The Lakers came out strong but fell behind early as Nicole Peckham opened the scoring at the nine-minute mark. The Lakers were clearly outplayed by Guelph.

“We did not play well today. Guelph controlled the game. It was a disappointing loss,” said Lady Lakers head coach Vito Castiglione.

The Lakers player of the game was Courtney Cherrett.

The Lady Lakers, facing a must win to stay alive in the playoff hunt, showed some determination by putting together their first 90 minute game of the season and defeated Ryerson 5-1 on Sunday.

The Lakers came out strong and finally found the back of the net. Tracey Cudmore opened the scoring at the 15 minute mark drilling a shot in the corner of the net as she broke away from the defence on a great thru ball pass from Cherrett. Stephanie Muldoon scored the Lakers second goal on a penalty kick at the 35 minute mark. The Lakers Bernadette Dec then scored the third goal as she made a great volley off of a Lakers corner kick (48 minute). Ryerson’s Michelle Anderson scored the Rams’ only goal at the 55 minute mark however the Lakers responded with two answered goals as Cudmore and Cherrett each scored to close out the contest.

“We finally put it all together today. We controlled the tempo of the game creating one scoring opportunity after the other. We played a great team game and played to our potential. It was a great win for us,” said Castiglione.

The Lakers will be back in action with a pair of home games this weekend Oct. 2 vs Brock and Oct. 3 vs McMaster at the Education Centre Field. Kick-off time for both games are at 3 pm.

NORTH BAY, ON - The Nipissing University womens soccer team made the playoffs last year. But just two games into this year’s season, the lady lakers find themselves with huge a game on the horizon.

The losses of 4-1 to University of Toronto Blues Saturday and 5-1 to York Lions Sunday leaves the club in the basement in the North Divisions of the Ontario University Association Soccer League. Both Toronto and York have four points each and Laurentian has two. The Lakers have none.

The Lakers are on the road this Saturday when they'll face the Laurentian Vees in Sudbury.

“I don’t know what Laurentian has,” Lady Lakers head coach Vito Castiglione said. “But I do know we can’t play the way we did this weekend. The game against Laurentian is critical for us. We just are not competing at this time."

“The girls are not making the passes and it appears as if they are afraid of making mistakes. I know we can play better. We need to play possession soccer and we aren’t doing that,” he said.

In Saturday tilt against the Blue, rookie Stephanie muldoon scored for the Lakers when she blasted home a shot off a direct free-kick. Anna Marie Violo was in goal for the Lakers. It was Tracey Cudmore on Sunday who found the range late in the second half when she pounced on a rebound and had an empty net to score on. It was a well-deserved goal for the Lakers Player-of-the game.

NORTH BAY, ON - The Nipissing University Lady Lakers soccer team began their 5 game exhibition schedule this past weekend in Montreal and Ottawa.

In the first game of the exhibition series, the Lakers traveled to Montreal and earned themselves a 3-0 victory over Dawson College. The Lakers took the lead early in the first half when Bernadette Dec redirected a Bailey Rudow corner kick at the 20-minute mark. The Lakers added another late in the half off a free kick. Courtney Cherrette quickly chipped the ball over the defending wall and found Dianne Landry all alone who controlled the ball and drove it into the back of the net.

Amanda Carvalho rounded out the scoring 14 minutes into the second half when she was sent in on a through-ball from Jessica Gillespie.

Anna Marie Violo and Kristine Sneddon equally shared the goalkeeping duties during the first three games.

On Saturday, the Lakers faced the Concordia Stingers and drew a 1-1 tie. Marlee Falcon found the range 30 minutes into the first half when she headed in a rebound from a Stephanie Muldoon shot.

Despite some lapses in defense, the Lakers managed to keep the Stingers off the scoreboard until the 87th minute when a misplayed pass-back was intercepted and capitalized on. "We attacked and played possession ball extremely well today" said head coach Vito Castiglione. "Defensively, it wasn't our best game".

The Lady Lakers then traveled to Ottawa on Sunday to face an aggressive Carlton Raven squad and also came out with a 1-1 draw. Again, the Lakers were first to open the scoring as Carhalvo headed in a Kate St. Onge corner early in the second half.

"They (Ravens) came out hard from the start and played a physical game. This is typical of what we will see during the regular season. We weren't prepared for that type of game," said Castiglione. "I liked the way the girls responded in the second half. I think this game has helped us to become a better team," he added.

The Lady Lakers conclude their exhibition schedule this week when they travel to Sudbury on Wednesday for a 7pm game against Cambrian College and Thurdsay at Graham Field versus the Club Lakers at 8:30pm.

Regular season commences this weekend with games at the Education Centre Field against the University of Toronto on Saturday and York University on Sunday. Kick-off time is 3 pm.

The Nipissing Lakers are getting an early start to the upcoming 2004-2005 OUA season. Although the lakers are set to begin preseason training on August 27, 2004, the coaching staff continues to bolster their lineup.

The women's soccer team, under 4th year head coach Vito Castiglione, sees the return of 13 talented rookies along with solid and experienced vetran players in Dianne Landry, Tracey Cudmore, Bernadette Dec, and Anna Violo.

Castiglione looks to this season with great enthusiasm and he is determined to make this team successful. He believes the key to this year is the teams' cohesion. With the possible return of all roster players the team should be very comfortable with each other. "We have some unbelievable soccer talent in our program right now. The coaching staff has done its part in recruiting, its time now to bring together all the pieces," said Castiglione. "We have added some much needed depth to our team. I feel that we should have a very good season."

This depth comes in the form of goal scoring - an area the Lakers have struggled with in the past. The Lakers have set their sights on two possible recruits who can make an immediate impact in this area. It's still early to tell if Nipissing will be thier university choice, but ongoing contact gives reason to believe that they will sign with the Lakers by mid May.