After a solid preseason, McGill hosted cross-town rivals UQAM in their season opener on Thursday night. The Martlets (2-0-0) seemed to be focused and poised to continue their preseason domination right from the opening kickoff. Unfortunately, the opening kickoff did not come on time, as one of the referee’s assistants failed to show up. This left McGill scrambling for a replacement. Finally, after all the pre-match antics, the game proceeded without a hitch. In fact, the match unfolded just as the Martlets hoped, dominating UQAM (0-1-0) in both possession and goals, and claiming a 3-0 victory for their first win of the season.

Head Coach Marc Mounicot has noticed a change in his team’s preparation this season. “The difference is that all players came to camp fit and ready to compete because veterans know that we had a good number of recruits with high profiles (9 of them made the team), and recruits knew we had a strong core of older players,” he explained.

Despite the lopsided result, the teams’ play was not as uneven as the score indicated. The Citadins fought hard to keep the McGill attack at bay throughout the entirety of the opening half. Relying primarily upon a defensive formation that limited offensive flair—as well as a few key saves from third-year goalkeeper Constance Laroch-Lafebvre, UQAM seemed destined to play the Martlets to an uninspired 0-0 draw.

Mounicot attributed the slow start to nerves. “We felt that some players were nervous and not at their normal level of performance … Also we know that we can change players in our system if we need more technical skills and we did that in the second half,” he said.

These substitutions paid off midway through the second half, as the Martlets finally broke through the tiring Citadins’ line of defence to find the back of the net. The opening effort came courtesy of third-year midfielder Hannah Rivkin, off a pleasing right-footed strike that just squeezed its way between the posts.

After the game slowed into stretches of controlled playmaking, highlighted by brilliant stretches of passing by the Martlets, Rivkin returned to scoring form, striking in similar fashion just 21 minutes later—giving McGill a two goal lead.

Although the contest was all but over, the Martlets refused to let their feet off the accelerator, scoring their final goal three minutes later, in the 84th minute. This time, newcomer Daphnée Morency of Boulder, Colorado did the honours, finishing for the first time in her young CIS career.

The Martlets were active once more over the weekend travelling to Quebec to take on Laval on Sept. 9. It was another impressive showing and victory for McGill as the club raised its play to achieve a 3-1 favourable result.

This week, the Martlets travel to Concordia to take on the 1-1 Concordia Stingers, where anything less than a victory would be a disappointment.