X-Women soccer finalize recruiting class

August 15, 2016 (Antigonish, NS) - StFX women's soccer head coach Graham Kennedy is pleased to announce the 2016 recruiting class and welcome five new additions to the X-Women program.

Coming off a season that culminated in an AUS quarter-final playoff victory and a 6-5-1 regular season record (9-6-2 overall), Coach Kennedy has five athletes who have either signed CIS letters of intent or accepted offers of admission and they include Julia Archambault (Toronto, ON), Miranda Clark (Victoria, BC), Catherine Kennedy (Antigonish, NS), Mercy Myles (Accra, Ghana), and Paytan Ruiz (Pictou, NS).

Coach Graham Kennedy, in his fourth season with the women's program, will look to these new players to help replace seniors Gabrielle Bergh and Mary MacDonald, along with Courtney Auer-Weatherell, Dani Makar and Erica Van Wyk who are out for the season due to injuries.

Leading this year's recruiting class is Mercy Myles, a distinguished soccer player in her West African homeland where she is currently interim captain of the Black Queens, Ghana's senior national women's team.  Mercy has played in three FIFA Youth World Cups, captained Ghana at both FIFA U17 and U20 World Cup tournaments, and recently represented Ghana in the African Championships and 2016 Olympic qualifying. A 5'5" central midfield player, Mercy is enrolled in the Bachelor of Arts degree program where she plans to major in development studies.

Julia Archambault is a 5'10" center forward from the Toronto Lynx soccer club (USL Super Y League) and a graduate of Father John Redmond Catholic Secondary School in Toronto. Julia will be pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree as part of StFX's social justice colloquium. In addition to soccer, Julia ran for her school's track and field team. She has a strong StFX connection with her father Brian ('90) a two-sport athlete in football and rugby and her mother Diane Ferracuti, a 1989 graduate.

Miranda Clark is a 5'7" goalkeeper from the Vancouver Island Wave of the BC High Performance Soccer League and the Victoria Highlanders women's team. Miranda is a graduate of Reynold's High School where she spent four years in the school's Centre for Soccer Excellence. She follows in the footsteps of former X-Men soccer goalkeeper, Sam Hutchison, who was also coached by noted goalkeeper trainer Trevor Stiles in Victoria. Miranda is enrolled in the Bachelor of Arts program at StFX.

Catherine Kennedy is a 5'6" attacking player out of Suburban Soccer Club in Halifax who also spent time developing her game previously with XFC Soccer Club in Nova Scotia and Calgary Foothills Soccer Club in Alberta. Catherine is a 2016 graduate of Dr. J.H. Gillis Regional High School in Antigonish where she was honored as female athlete of the year, excelling in soccer, track, rugby and volleyball. Catherine is enrolled in the Bachelor of Science in Human Kinetics program. Catherine's parents, Joanie and Graham, are both StFX graduates and her father is the head coach of both the X-Men and X-Women soccer teams.

Paytan Ruiz is a 5'7" defender who is a product of the local XFC Soccer Club and currently plays for Suburban Soccer Club in Halifax and the Nova Scotia U18 provincial team. A 2016 graduate of Pictou Academy, Paytan is enrolled in the Bachelor of Business Administration program. Her mother Tanya is a 1996 graduate of StFX and her father Phillip was an AUS champion soccer player at Mount Allison University who went on to play professionally in the Canadian Soccer League.

In addition to the five recruited student-athletes, there are three other potential athletes who could join the X-Women following training camp evaluations. These players include attacking players Sarah Bruce and Vanessa Cinel of Ottawa, Ont. and defender Sophia Italiano of Richmond Hill, Ont. All three have experience playing in the Ontario Youth Soccer League, the top youth league in the province, and Coach Kennedy expects all three to have an excellent chance of cracking the X-Women roster.

The X-Women enter the 2016 season after a fifth place finish in the AUS standings last year and their first playoff appearance since 2011. StFX opens pre-season exhibition play with a trip to the USA for games against St. Anselm (August 27) and University of Southern New Hampshire (August 29), before returning to play Mount Saint Vincent at home on September 4th. The X-Women open AUS regular season play when they host the UPEI Panthers on September 10th and the UNB Varsity Reds on September 11th, both games are scheduled for 1:00pm at StFX Stadium.

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