FUNK THIRD SPARTAN TO PULL OUT OF FISU GAMES WITH INJURY

Kristen Funk

WOMEN’S SOCCER
FRIDAY, JULY 22, 2011
FISU GAMES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FUNK BECOMES THIRD SPARTAN TO PULL OUT OF FISU GAMES WITH INJURY
    
LANGLEY, British Columbia – Trinity Western women’s soccer goalkeeper Kristen Funk (Calgary, Alta.) will not be making the trip to Shenzhen, China August 11-21 for the FISU Games after she recently suffered an injury that has forced her to be replaced by University of Ottawa’s Cynthia Leblanc.

Funk is the third Spartans women’s soccer player to be dropped from Team Canada after defender Kristen Santema (Coquitlam, B.C.) and Jilian Dietrich (Calgary, Alta.) were both forced to stay home due to health reasons. Santema was replaced by University of Victoria’s Shayla Behrens and Dietrich was replaced by Queen’s Riley Filion.

This summer, Funk played with the Vancouver Whitecaps FC women’s team in the W-League where she got into six games, playing 528 minutes and recorded three shutouts. Last year with the Spartans, Funk, playing in 10 games, led Canada West with a 0.77 goals against average, was second in the league with a .843 save percentage and was tied for fourth in the conference with four shutouts.

Trinity Western will still have four players on Canada’s women’s soccer team at the 26th Summer Universiade –midfielders Natalie Boyd and Melissa Mobilio and forwards Nikki Wright and Daniela Gerig – plus two coaches – head coach Graham Roxburgh and goalie and video coach Neil Turner.

Gerig was added to Team Canada July 5 after an injury to Victoria striker Kendra Flock.

About Spartan Athletics
Since Trinity Western entered the CIS in 1999, Spartan student-athletes have accumulated a number of significant awards including a CIS Athlete of the Year (BLG) award, four CIS Player of the Year awards, a CIS Elite Eight Academic All-Canadian award, three CIS Rookie of the Year awards, a CIS Libero of the Year award, three CIS community service awards and numerous CIS All-Canadian and Canada West All-Star awards. In twelve years as members of the CIS, the Spartans have won six national titles (women’s soccer in 2004, 2008, 2009 and men’s volleyball in 2006, 2011), 15 CIS championship medals, an individual CIS championship in track and seven Canada West championships.

About TWU
Trinity Western University, in Langley, BC, is a provincially chartered, independent Christian liberal arts, sciences, and professional studies university, enrolling approximately 4000 students. TWU offers 42 undergraduate majors, ranging from biotechnology, education, theatre and music, to psychology, communications and biblical studies. TWU's 16 graduate degree programs include nursing, counselling psychology, marriage and family therapy, business, theology, linguistics, and leadership, and interdisciplinary degrees in English, philosophy and history. TWU holds Canada Research Chairs in Dead Sea Scroll Studies, Developmental Genetics and Disease, and Interpretation, Religion & Culture.

About Canada West Universities Athletic Association
Canada West is consistently the most decorated of the four conferences in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), winning at least 10 CIS national titles every year, 1997 to 2010. Comprised of 14 schools, from the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, the CWUAA produces numerous major award winners and Academic All-Canadian student-athletes each year, with many going on to athletic success around the globe in pro leagues or events such as the Olympics, Paralympics or Universiade Games. “cwuaa” on Twitter.

About Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Fifty-one universities, 10,000 student-athletes and 550 coaches vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit www.cis-sic.ca.

-TW-

Last Updated: 2011-07-25
Author: Mark Janzen