MONTREAL – Midfielder Chloe Renaud scored in the 23rd minute of play but McGill was fit to be tied when Concordia's Devon Vermaire tallied the equalizer a dozen minutes later as the cross-town rivals settled for a 1-1 draw in RSEQ women's university soccer at the Loyola campus, Sunday afternoon.
 
It marked the third consecutive saw-off for the Martlets, two shy of the school record of five ties in regular season play, previously accomplished in 2007 and 2010. The RSEQ record is six ties, shared by UQAM (2017), UQTR (2018) and Bishop's (2022).
 
Renaud's goal halted a 232-minute scoring drought for McGill. It was the first goal of the season for the 20-year-old psychology sophomore from St. Hubert, Que. She also has four assists and now leads the Martlets in points with five in eight contests.
 
"Moving the ball was difficult in the first half as the sun was directly in our faces and we couldn't really tell the players apart when moving the ball out of our zone," said McGill head coach Jose-Luis Valdes. "But we had the sun at our backs in the second half and showed better rhythm. There was a sense of urgency on our players to create and generate scoring chances. That led to a few scoring opportunities but we had a hard time converting. The chances to score have been there over the last three games and on a positive note, we haven't really allowed many scoring chances in our zone."
 
McGill had a 12-6 edge in attempted shots, including 9-4 on target but couldn't solve goalkeeper Rosalie Girouard, who made eight saves. Sophie Guilmette registered three saves between the pipes for McGill.
 
There were 16 fouls called, divided equally between the sides but McGill was flagged for a pair of yellow cards. The Martlets were without the services of defender Ariel Carignan, who was serving an automatic suspension after having accumulating three yellows this season.
 
It was a costly loss of two points in the RSEQ standings for the Martlets who sit in third place with a 3-2-3 record, only three points ahead of Concordia (2-3-3) with six games left to play. The second-place Carabins (6-1-1) are comfortably seven points ahead.
 
McGill plays at last-place UQTR (1-6-1) on Sept. 28 at 6 p.m. The Stingers will travel across the city to play the Carabins on Sept. 29
 
SCORING SUMMARY
 
RSEQ STATS & STANDINGS
 
SOURCE:

Earl Zukerman
Sports Info Officer
McGill Athletics & Recreation
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca
(514) 983-7012