Lyric Lewis nabs top-5 finish on the links; Portage College Voyageurs begin soccer campaign

ACAC golf and soccer seasons underway. 

Collegiate athletes teed and kicked off last weekend as the Portage College Voyageurs began their Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) seasons.

Lac La Biche Golf & Country Club welcomed schools from across the province for the ACAC North Regional golf tournament and the hosts represented well.

The Voyageurs women’s team took 3rd while the men’s team held 4th after two rounds on the course.

“It’s a great opportunity to show off our local course, we had lots of young golfers who are used to the newer, more traditional wide-open courses, and everyone found it extremely challenging to navigate our course,” said Voyageurs manager of Athletics and Recreation, Stephen Anthony. 

“It’s one that you have to do a lot more course management than some of the newer courses that you’re seeing, especially the two courses that they’re going to play in the next couple of rounds.

“But what was nice, I think, really was our student athletes. The top three or four guys all performed better on day two than they did day one.” 

Lyric Lewis, who hails from Beaver Lake Cree Nation, was a top 5 finisher placing 4th by shooting rounds of 98 on Saturday and Sunday. Teammate Jayden Draney placed 9th with a six stroke improvement on the second day of competition.

On the men’s side, Nick Gidney found a 15th place finish followed by teammates Alex Brousseau 16th, and Kaden Belcourt 17th. Brady Stange had a 15 stroke improvement of Day 2  and Tyrell Bourke went right behind him at 22nd.

The brief golf season continues this weekend as they’ll travel to Medicine Hat to play Desert Blume in the South Regional, the second qualifying event of the campaign.

The ACAC Championships are the following weekend in Edmonton.

WATCH: Lyric Lewis and Brady Stange

Voyageurs soccer teams play under the lights

The soccer season is underway and the Voyageurs young program is looking to continue to develop in a competitive north division.

It’s just the fourth season Portage has offered a soccer program, beginning in 2019, but with the disruptions due to COVID, the Voyageurs have realistically only been on the pitch for two and a half years.

Hosting the Concordia Thunder, one of the stronger sides in the north division, the women’s team lost 5-0, but there was several positives. Keeper Gaelyn Verdin stopped 17 of the 22 shots, while the Voyageurs were able to generate some scoring chances.

“The ladies have definitely improved and that’s a credit to their hard work,” said coach Kika Mukuninwa on acac.ca. “We’ve got some new faces as well and the returning players and they’ve really meshed well. For sure, the women’s team is a lot stronger and I’d say that they can compete against anybody in this league.”

The men’s side, without three key returning players due to suspension and injury, fell 7-1 on Friday night, despite having no one available for substitutions. Bjorn Goolie scored the club’s lone goal in the 88th minute.

They are looking to build of a 1-5 record last year and a top-4 finish in futsal competition.

“We hit a couple of posts, a crossbar, and in order to win we have to start putting the ball in the net,” said Mukuninwa on acac.ca. “But definitely the work ethic was there so that’s something to build on.”

Anthony noted that the men’s team is getting more respect around the ACAC for showing incremental improvement.

“It’s definitely a very, very young program. We have, I think, six guys on the men’s team that have returned…only one of them would be  in their third year this year,” he told Lakeland Connect. 

“One of the great things is the facility that we have — coming to a small town and walking out to probably the nicest pitch in the ACAC, at least, definitely in the north. 

“I think you’ll see a much different outcome or performance this weekend.” 

The soccer schedule has returned to playing back-to-back games over the course of a weekend and a 12 game regular season schedule.

Both Voyageurs teams will test that endurance this weekend, travelling to Edmonton to play The King’s University Eagles, before hosting the Lakeland College Rustlers on Sunday.

WATCH: Ashley Tweedy & Corwin Schieck