The Bisons women’s soccer team went all out with their last two opponents in their last games of the 2024 regular season.

It was a tug-of-war between the Bisons and their second last opponent, the Saskatchewan Huskies, on Oct. 19. The no-retreat-no-surrender match ended in a goalless draw that left the Bisons with a hope of finding a win against their last opponent, the Regina Cougars, on Oct. 20.

The Bisons had their seniors, Jessica Tsai, Janelle Chomini, Alexandria Paul and Camila Goldsztein, as well as their rookie, Nyema Prentice-Whyte, featured in the match. The match happened to be the second last match for the Bisons seniors as they will be hanging their jerseys after their last home match against the Regina Cougars.

Mike Still, the Bisons sports information and social media coordinator, mentioned that the two matches were also important “to develop connections for the team because a lot of the players will be back next year, so developing that connection and the chemistry on the pitch is really important still.”

Still noted, “we are mathematically eliminated from the play-offs unfortunately, but there is still a lot to play for this weekend.”

“We have four seniors in our line-up this weekend,” stated Still. These players included defender Alexandria Paul and forward Janelle Chomini, who has the 10th most points in the school history. “Then Camila Goldsztein, another forward. And our captain, Jessica Tsai,” said Still. “So, it’s a big weekend for Jess. These will be her 69th and 70th games played and started — didn’t miss a start her whole career, that is the school record and she is only two assists away from the school record of 26. That’s been held since 2009 by Desiree Scott, […] an Olympic gold medalist.”

As the match continued, the Bisons went head-to-head with the Huskies from the start. At about 32 minutes, the Bisons captain Jessica Tsai almost gave her team a winning goal when she hit the ball in the air with the right leg, but unfortunately the Huskies goalkeeper denied her the chance.

In regard to the chance missed, Tsai said, “that is a tough one honestly, even that shot itself was pretty lucky, I was just trying to do my best to get a touch on it toward the net and it ended up being a much harder shot than I thought it was going to be but keeper did a good job.”

Tsai continued, “she was in a good place and sometimes that’s just the way it happens, but it would have been nice to get one for sure.”

Speaking on the final moments of the season, Tsai said, “I’m just really grateful that I have been able to be on this team for so long and that I have stayed healthy enough to keep doing it for as long as I have been.”

She continued, “but more than anything, I am trying to treat it like another game, we still want to go out there and give the great team performance, I want to give one last go as best as I can for myself and for my team.”

Speaking on her future plan for her soccer career, she said, “honestly, I don’t have much planned. I want to make sure I get my degree before anything, maybe start working and I just have plans to play in the [local] women’s league, […] I for sure want to keep playing, but I haven’t thought too much about anything other than that though.”

The captain continued, “I don’t want to say the door is completely closed, it’s definitely open a little bit, it’s not necessarily my top priority at the moment. My top priority is just making sure I give it like one last go, I finish the season strong, and then after tomorrow I will start thinking a little more about that.”

Despite the Bisons’ struggle to get the ball into the back of the net, the match ended in a peaceful draw.

The Bisons women’s soccer head coach Vanessa Martinez-Lagunas said, “I am very proud of the team. [Saskatchewan] is a very good team and I think that getting the point is important for us in terms of finishing the season strong and our main objective this weekend is to play for our seniors.”

Martinez-Lagunas continued, “I’m just very proud of the team and the other thing is we got another clean sheet. We basically shut down one of the best offences in the conference so I’m very proud of the team.”

“We were great [consistently] for 90 plus minutes from the whole team. From the goalkeeper all the way to the forward, to our frontline, so that’s how we did it. We talked about it, we said that was the number one key and they did it, they implemented it and I am very proud of them.”

Speaking on how this match against the Huskies would impact their last match, Martinez-Lagunas said, “the most important thing is to keep our tactical discipline, I think we played a really good, disciplined game overall and what we need to do tomorrow, we need to be skillful in the attack, we need to score at least one, two, three goals if possible.”