(Hameltion, Wikimedia Commons)
The Vancouver Rise are the very first champions of the Northern Super League. On Saturday at the Bank of Montreal Field in Toronto, Ontario, the Rise defeated AFC Toronto 2-1. This game was monumental as it was the first ever championship game of the new Canadian Women’s Soccer League.
It is interesting that Vancouver won the very first game of the league’s inaugural season. That was a 1-0 Vancouver win over the Calgary Wild FC on April 16. Then the Vancouver Rise won the final game. In the championship final where the teams played for the Diana B. Matheson Cup, the Rise got a game-winning goal from forward Holly Ward of Vancouver, British Columbia, who scored in the 68th minute.
Ward played high level soccer in the Vancouver region as a teenager. She played with Mountain United FC and the Whitecaps FC Girls Elite before playing four seasons at the National Collegiate Athletic Association level with the University of Texas.
On the international side, Ward has scored twice for Canada in friendlies. She scored the game-winning goal in a 3-1 Canada win over Haiti on June 3 from Montreal, Quebec, and another game-winning goal in a 4-1 Canada win over Costa Rica on June 27 from Toronto.
