Cassandra Provost named National Player of the Year

Second-year striker Cassandra Provost was honoured with the Chantal Navert Memorial Award as U SPORTS women's soccer Player of the Year Wednesday night in Québec City, as the national award winners were celebrated at the annual All-Canadian Gala. 

The national leader in goals scored and points per game, Provost was a dominant offensive threat. Her 18 goals and 21 points in 11 games played set Ottawa team records. 

"We're really happy that Cassandra has been able to perform game in and game out and become an integral part of the team off the field," says Gee-Gees head coach Steve Johnson. 

"She is a complete target striker, great back to goal, good in the air, able to finish first-time chances," explains Johnson. "And, her strength and speed make her very difficult to mark."

Provost, an accounting student from Acton Vale, Que., recorded a goal in all but two of the Gee-Gees regular season games, and also added two more in the OUA quarter-final match. Five goals came in one match, also setting a team record, although none of the 20 came from the penalty spot.

Her award-winning campaign follows her excellent rookie season in 2021, which included seven goals scored and the OUA East Rookie of the Year award. "Expectations were set high for her, being the rookie of the year last year. Would she be able to follow up a good rookie season with an even better sophomore season? She's answered that question."

"Her work rate during the games is exactly what we were asking for. She does a lot of the hard work during set pieces. She's also been very unselfish with her play back to goal, trying to bring teammates into the play."

Provost becomes the third Gee-Gee in program history to win the national player of the year award, interestingly following in the footsteps of a pair of defenders – Noël Trepanier (2000) and Gillian Baggot (2012). 

"Noël and Gillian were both special - complete players," recalls Johnson, who is competing at the national championship tournament with uOttawa for the fifteenth time in 28 seasons.

"I'm happy to see us get an offensive player selected because we've had some wonderful attacking talent throughout the program over the years."

The 2022 U SPORTS championship gets underway Thursday at Laval University's Stade TELUS and culminates Sunday with the national championship game at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. All 11 games from the eight-team tournament will be webcast live on CBC Gem and cbcsports.ca in English and USPORTS.ca in French.