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Ottawa Gee-Gees win women's World Cup university soccer championship

A goal early in the first half and perfect defence made the difference against Paulista University of Brazil in Saturday's final in China.

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An Ottawa team has won Canada’s first World Cup soccer championship.

The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees accomplished that stunning feat Saturday, upsetting favoured Paulista University of Brazil 1-0 in the final of the inaugural KELME FISU University World Cup women’s championship in Jinjiang, China.

“A proud moment for everyone; a packed house to support these great student-athletes. Celebrate team, celebrate!” Sue Hylland, the University of Ottawa Sports Services director, wrote on Twitter.

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After their team bus received a police escort to the sold out, 8,000-seat Jinjiang Football Park Stadium, the Gee-Gees scored the game’s only goal early in the first half and defended fiercely against a continuous offensive push from their opponents.

A perfect corner kick by fifth-year player Katherine Bearne allowed Mikayla Morton to head the ball into the Paulista net in the game’s second minute. It was the first and only goal allowed by Paulista in the tournament. Gee-Gees goalkeeper Margot Shore earned her fourth shutout of the World Cup.

“It’s unbelievable,” Bearne told U Sports, the governing body for university sports in Canada. “It was a great team win. Five games in 10 days is a lot on our bodies, but we really pulled together as a unit.”

Morton, who was named the Ontario University Athletics East Division MVP after scoring a team-record 17 regular-season goals, and Bearne, the OUA East Community Service Award winner, were named U Sports All-Canadians in 2019.

“It is such an amazing accomplishment for Canadian university soccer, and the Gee-Gees women’s soccer program in particular,” Gee-Gees head coach Steve Johnson wrote in an e-mail to Postmedia. “I am so proud of our players’ performances here.”

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The Gee-Gees were selected for a wild-card berth to represent Canada and U Sports in the inaugural, eight-team women’s tournament after winning the 2018 national university championship on home field. Top-ranked nationally in 2019, they lost in the OUA semifinals and failed to qualify for nationals.

Both World Cup finalists entered Saturday’s championship game with 4-0 records, but Paulista had the more impressive goal differential: 26-0 for its three round-robin and one semi-final victories. The Gee-Gees counted nine goals for and had two against in the preliminary round and had to go into penalty kicks in the semi-final, after extra time ended with the score 0-0.

Johnson prepared the Gee-Gees well for the final, studying a lot of video of the powerful Paulista squad. Two Paulista players are members of the Brazilian national team, ranked 11th in the world, and most team members play in the senior national league. Five Paulista athletes represented Brazil in the 2019 FISU Summer Universiade at Napoli, Italy, while four Gee-Gees were on Canada’s team.

“We adapted well to the conditions,” Johnson added. “I have built our team to attack in Canada, but we had to come here and defend.”

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Paulista regularly surged on offence during Saturday’s contest, but none of its free kicks, corners and shots near or off the crossbar produced a goal. The Gee-Gees countered with a solid technical defence, featuring speed.

The Gee-Gees were sparked by rookie Trinity Esprit, who was named World Cup MVP. Last month, Esprit was named to the U Sports All-Rookie team.

“This (World Cup MVP) is a phenomenal accomplishment for a player who plays fullback,” continued Johnson, whose assistant coaches were Stuart Barbour and Jean Berchan.

Ottawa captain captain Katherine Delev received the tournament’s Fair Play Award.

The Gee-Gees opened the World Cup with a pair of shutout victories. Emma Lefebvre scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Donghua University of China. Morton, Hailey Walsh and Angelina Gendreau recorded the goals in a 3-0 blanking of Siberian Federal University of Russia.

Bearne, Lefebvre, Delaney Rickert-Hall and Angelina Gendreau scored in a 4-2 triumph against College of Asian Scholars of Thailand to clinch first place in their preliminary-round pool.

Thursday’s semi-final against Beijing Normal University was tense. After scoreless regulation and overtime, the Gee-Gees were perfect in the penalty shootout as Morton, Thea Abdul Nour, Miranda Smith, Kaylane Hogue and Gendreau converted their chances for a 5-3 decision.

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