WSOC:Capers star leads team to Ottawa
It’s a sort of homecoming for Cape Breton captain Ciera Disipio at this week’s U Sports women’s soccer championship at the University of Ottawa.
Halifax, NS - Disipio is one of three Capers (Chantal Caron and Amelia Carlini are the others) who hail from the National Capital Region and will be in the lineup when CBU opens the four-day national tournament Thursday morning (11 a.m., AT) against the Western Mustangs in quarter-final action.
"There's three of us from Ottawa who from the start of this season have said it's been our inspiration to get back home and play in front of family and friends at nationals," said Disipio, a fourth-year midfielder who was tournament MVP at last weekend's AUS championship in Sydney.
"It's going to be awesome."
The Capers captured their second consecutive conference banner in women's soccer, their third in four years and 10th overall title after defeating the St. Francis Xavier X-Women 1-0 in a windy championship final Sunday in Sydney.
Disipio, who has won two straight league MVP awards, scored the lone goal of the match in the 35th minute.
It was an impressive season for the Capers, who came into the 2018 campaign looking for offence following the graduation of league-leading scorer Keona Simmonds and Tamara Brown. The pair combined to score 20 goals last season.
Disipio helped pick up the scoring slack by leading the league with 10 goals as CBU scored a conference-high 36.
"And she was able to produce that kind of offence as a centre midfielder; that's impressive," said Capers head coach Stephen (Ness) Timmons.
"And it's not just her play on the field. She's been a great leader on and off the field.
"She lost a lot of support around her including some all-Canadians and this year we have a younger, greener squad. So it was definitely a standout performance this season for her."
Disipio, the 2015 AUS rookie of the year who's undecided about returning for a fifth season, was well aware of the expectations placed on her coming into this season.
"I knew (the expectations) were on me personally and not only that but on our offence as a whole," said Disipio, who has scored 30 career goals during her four seasons at CBU.
"We lost 20 goals between two players. It was recognized early that we would need to find scorers elsewhere. The coaches put the onus on me to score goals but we also had 12 different girls who scored a goal during the course of the season. So it wasn't just coming from two or three people, everyone stepped up to help get the ball in the net during the season. It was so incredible."
The reigning U Sports champion Montreal Carabins, who went undefeated in 2018, are ranked No. 1 for the national tournament.
It was the Carabins who defeated CBU 1-0 in the 2017 U Sports final, denying the Capers their chance of a second national gold medal to go with the title they won in 2007.
"We're not exactly the same team that placed second at nationals but we are going to use last year as a motivating factor," Disipio said.
"The first game, the quarter-final, is the most important and we have momentum going into that first game. If you pull off a win there, you guarantee yourself to play for some medal. To do that two years in a row would be incredible."
The other quarter-finals feature the Trinity Western Spartans against the Laval Rouge et Or, Montreal takes on the McMaster Marauders and the host Ottawa Gee Gees play the Calgary Dinos.