Women’s soccer on the Rise

We all won.

It was amazing to watch the Vancouver Rise win the NSL Playoff Championship last night and be crowned the first ever champions of professional women’s soccer in Canada. The Cup Final was an incredible occasion. AFC Toronto, the league champions, came into the match as favourites, having relatively cruised their way through the semi final against Montreal and with a winning record over Vancouver. The Rise have had an up and down season, but finished third in a tight field and made the semi finals with a couple of weeks to spare. They worked hard to beat Ottawa, winning 2-1 in the first leg of the semi final before going to Ottawa and needing penalties to settle the match. Yesterday’s match in Toronto was an occasion in so many ways. A lightning delay around 38th minute stopped play for a half an hour. Toronto dominated the first half and a goal from their 17 year old talisman Kaylee Hunter set them up with a 1-0 scoreline that looked like it would hold. But Vancouver found another gear, tightened up their defence and got a flukey goal to level the match before their own talisman, Holly Ward scored a beauty to take the lead 2-1. Vancouver needed to hold on for another 25 minutes though, which they did and toppled Toronto for the win.

There is so much that is amazing about this event, not the least of which is that there were 4 former TSS Rovers players involved in the match. For Toronto, Emma Regan and Ashley Cathro started and Kae Hansen was an unused sub. These players appeared for our club in 2018 when we had a team in the Women’s Premier Soccer League. For the Rise our former supporters’ player of the year Kirstin Tynan, who was our keeper and captain in 2023 and 2024, was the back up keeper behind goaltender of the year and Finals MVP Morgan McAslan. That’s Kirstin pictured above, losing her mind after the match!

Having watched these players develop, especially in the nearly invisible world of lower level women’s football, it was incredibly moving to see them on this stage, afforded this opportunity and doing it brilliantly. This whole season has been deeply meaningful for thousands of people and especially the women who played the game for so long at the highest levels without ever getting a chance to play professionally at home. You saw it in Amy Walsh’s sign off from the broadcast yesterday. She was one of Canada’s bad asses in her day, and has been a tireless champion of this league. You see what it means to her.

And on the other side of the country, our 2025 player of the year, Sofia Faremo (and 2025 TSS Rovers player Elyse Beaudry) won their Conference title for Simon Fraser University, so it was a day of championships for women’s soccer involving Rovers.

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