Women's Soccer: Who's out and who's in

It's late enough in the season that it's possible to start looking at who made and who didn't make the playoffs, and judge their performance accordingly.

We'll start in AUS, where UPEI were finally defeated on the weekend by UNB, of all teams, but have already qualified for the playoffs. Their loss is good news for the Huskies who can now grab a share of first place with a win over Dalhousie on Friday.

The Huskies are pretty much in, as are Dal, thanks to weekend wins over St. FX for both sides. How the Huskies aren't nationally ranked yet is a mystery—they haven't allowed a goal in October. They're ranked #1 in our RPI.

Memorial are the team to watch late in the AUS season. Although they're usually near the bottom of the table, they've surprised this year. They'll likely lose their next two games to UPEI and Dal, which will hurt their momentum, but it's conceivable they could finish at home with six points against woeful Moncton. The X-Women have a pretty good edge on the Sea-Hawks, but a brutal run-in, so Memorial have a chance, especially if they pick up a point or two on the road.

The OUA East is wrapped, with RMC, Nipissing and Trent all missing out. Ottawa and Toronto are still slugging it out for who gets the second bye, which will likely come down to their meeting on the last day.

The West is nowhere near sorted yet, but Waterloo's Kaitlyn Barnet knew exactly where Brock were going to finish, so she went and scored in the 92nd minute to eliminate the Badgers, who will look at a run of five losses and wonder where the playoffs went. A win over Waterloo would have given Brock a chance.

Even Western aren't quite out of it yet, but Waterloo control their fate--a single point from the Warriors would eliminate the Mustangs, who will have to win at York to have any chance.

In Quebec, UQAM are mostly out unless they get very lucky. The competition is mostly between UQTR and Laval. With identical records and similarly inconsistent records, predictions are for fools. Our RPI gives the edge slightly to Laval, so that'll have to do. Both will likely lose to Montreal and McGill, but they play each other on the last weekend, too, which should make for some nice end-of-season drama.

In the west, the bards are warming up to sing eulogies for the University of Fraser Valley Cascades. At least there's plenty of landscape inspiration. Unless their first goal in October provided some inspiration for UFV, they're going out after a CIS bronze medal last year.

Quite simply, the Cascades don't deserve the playoffs, Their lineup from last year is almost entirely intact, and yet with their playoff lives on the line, they managed to lose 4-0 to Regina at home. Just try to comprehend that for a second—Donna Pinning couldn't, and promptly got herself sent off instead. A 1-1 home draw against Manitoba isn't much better, but at least Megan Webster scored.

Trinity Western, Alberta and UBC are pretty much safe at the top, leaving Victoria, Saskatchewan and Calgary all within three points of each other. Saskatchewan and Calgary each have two more games than the Vikes. The Huskies and the Dinos all play the same four teams, so it really will be the better team going through to the final playoff spot and the chance to upset the Spartans this year, too.
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