AUS Women's Preview

Sadly, DalSoccerLive can only be in one place at once. The presence of the men's tournament at Dal (and the lack of a cloning machine) means we can't live-blog what promises to be an entertaining women's tournament.

The good news is that two AUS teams will be heading to CIS nationals, so if Dalhousie can get out of the semi-final, we'll catch up with them next weekend.

Our predictions are coming up after the jump....

We here at DalSoccerLive are following in the tradition of FOX News and making our call a little bit early.

But like the infamous 2000 presidential race, this one is really, really tough to call. And we don't have any relations in the race to help bias our judgement.

It's tempting, really tempting, to pick Dalhousie. They're undefeated. They've found ways all season to get goals in tough. They've been good.

But unlike the men, where there is a definite case for the home team, the women haven't really dominated this year and picking them with confidence is hard. There just isn't enough to argue on.

So let's introduce a caveat: I think Dal will qualify for nationals. They'll get to the finals (possibly by way of a penalty shoot-out--how's that for specificity) but lose to Cape Breton.

Why Cape Breton, who have had, by their lofty standards, a rather mediocre season, finishing third with 25 points (Dal had 33, UPEI 27)? Because Cape Breton is a playoff team. This is a team which still has a boatload of CIS experience. They have winners on their team. They won nationals in 2007. They got upset last year by Brock in the first game. That one will have stung them, and they'll want back.

People know who they are nationally. They have a reputation. The play-by-play guys at nationals don't mispronounce their school name (Dalhoosie? not quite, guys). People have expectations of CBU.

UPEI have a ridiculous number of goals from Tessa Roche, but they could very well run into the Capers in their semi-final. The Capers conceded only seven goals in 2008, when they topped the conference. They've conceded six this year. Jessica MacDermid is a phenomenal goalkeeper, and she has a lot of experience agead of her. She's had some fitness problems this year, but she's a pure shot-stopping 'keeper who is easily the most capable in AUS of stealing a game single-handedly.

Erika Lannon can be enigmatic, but she has the ability to score, although her tally of three in the season this year isn't so impressive. Alyssa Bundoo is an excellent 17-year old centre-mid who can defend and link the attack. Nicholle Morrison has four goals.

CBU's scoring will be spread out, but that can be a good thing. They won't beat UPEI 6-5, they'll beat them by marking Tessa Roche out of the game and nipping a goal from somewhere. The Capers are a team who know how to win when it matters. They've done it before.

Feel free to offer your own thoughts below. Disagree. Agree. Make a case for why you think Moncton will be mysteriously disqualified leading Saint Mary's to step in and go all the way.* Thoughts?

*This is not an official DalSoccerLive prediction.