November 10, 2009

ALLEN, BOUCHARD MAKING NAMES FOR THEMSELVES ON CANADIAN NATIONAL TEAMS

When one thinks about great Canadian exports, things like “hockey”, “maple syrup”, “the Maple Leaf”, “Mounties”, “Alex Trebek” or even “Bryan Adams.” (Everything he does, he does it for you)

Junior Myriam Bouchard (Quebec City, Quebec) and sophomore Molly Allen (Halifax, Nova Scotia) of the Virginia Commonwealth University women’s soccer program are hard at work trying to help make “soccer” a popular answer to that question in the coming years.

Both current Rams have recently spent time with both the Canadian Women’s National Team and the Canadian Women’s U-20 National Team.

Allen is a member of the U-20 Team and recently participated in the squad’s training camp in Texas. As well as the training camp, she played in two friendly matches against Mexico, picking up a 3-3 draw and dropping a 1-0 decision to the neighbors to the south.

For the Rams, Allen plays a hard-nosed left back and has consistently shut down the opponents for two years. She also adds a powerful leg from the back line that gives the Black & Gold a deep scoring threat.

After spending last year as the captain of the U-20 Team at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Germany 2010, Bouchard has moved her game onto the National Team and recently spent two weeks in camp with the best women’s players in Canada.

Last year, Bouchard helped the Canadians win their second-ever CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championship and place fifth-overall at the U-20 World Cup.

While donning the Black & Gold, Bouchard is the key cog on VCU’s stifling back line, earning the starting spot at center back for during the 2007 and 2009 campaigns.  

Over the past two years with Bouchard and Allen on the back line, the Rams defense has allowed one goal or less in 24 of their 38 matches (a .632 percentage) , including 11 shutouts.

The duo is continues the long history of Canadians donning the VCU uniform joining the likes of Jen Parsons, Leah Robinson, Stephanie Power, Catherine Duchesne and Genevieve Tremblay.