Rustlers Futsal head to Championship

The Lakeland Rustlers men's and women's futsal teams have been preparing for weeks for their one ACAC futsal event - the ACAC Futsal Championships. The championships are being held from March 15-17 at Lethbridge College. Each team will play a round-robin style pool of games on Friday and Saturday, with the top men's and women's teams in each pool advancing to Sunday's medal round.

Both Rustlers teams have been placed in difficult pools, as pools are determined based on the results from the outdoor soccer season. The women's team will face the SAIT Trojans and Ambrose Lions on Friday, followed by the Augustana Vikings and Lethbridge Kodiaks on Saturday. The men's team has just one game on Friday, as they take on the Keyano Huskies. The team will then play twice on Saturday when they will face the King's Eagles and SAIT Trojans.

Rustlers Head Coach Kevin Wagner spoke about expectations for his teams before the championships.

"Both teams are in tough pools," Wagner said, "so we will need to play well Friday and Saturday for the chance to play Sunday. Lethbridge has a much smaller surface than we have here [at Lakeland], so we will need to defend well and have good opportunities off the counter-attack to have a chance to win."

Neither of the Rustlers team have faced any competition against other ACAC futsal teams yet this season. The men's team played in several futsal tournaments, however the tournaments were run by other soccer clubs versus ACAC competition. With Friday being the first time against other ACAC Futsal teams this season, Wagner is hoping for the best, and that his teams will do better than expected this weekend.