Outerbridge’s goals pace the Ottawa Fury, hoping for call from Carolina Morace

Mallory Outerbridge is making a massive statement. Will Canadian national women’s team coach Carolina Morace be listening?

Outerbridge hopes to break into the Canadian national women’s team lineup when the side will vie for a spot at the 2012 Olympics at the CONCACAF qualifiers, to be held in Vancouver beginning in late January.

As the Canadian women’s team was struggling through a winless stint at the Women’s World Cup in Germany, Outerbridge was leading the Ottawa Fury through one of the most remarkable seasons in W-League history.

The Fury goes into its final regular-season game this weekend, a date with the Toronto Lady Lynx. The Fury is currently at 11-0-0, on the cusp of an unbeaten and un-drawn season. And Outerbridge — a native of Regina, Sask. — is at the top of scoring charts, with 14 goals.

Kelly Parker, now with the Atlanta Beat of WPS, hold the Fury record with 18 goals in a season, but did it in a campaign that was two games longer than the Fury’s sked in 2011.

Like Parker (who also hails from Saskatchewan), Outerbridge wants to use her time with the Fury as a springboard.

“I have one more year left at Western Kentucky, but after that I want to go to WPS or to Europe. I would love the chance to play in Sweden or Germany.”

Last season, Outerbridge led WKU with 10 goals and was named to the All-Sun Belt Conference First Team.

The Fury has already clinched the top seed in the Great Lakes conference playoffs. The winner of the conference will go to the W-League finals in Seattle. It’s a remarkable feat for a club that brought in 13 new players at the start of the season.

“I think a lot of it has to do with chemistry,” said Outerbridge. “We are a very close team and have become the best of friends. Two weeks after the season started, we were saying that we had felt like we had been playing together for a year.”

But, despite the perfect record, anything can happen in the Great Lakes playoffs, or in the final four in Seattle.

“We could end up losing our first game of the year and then not be going to the final four in Seattle,” said Outerbridge. “It would end our perfect season.”

The Fury women’s program has posted a 99-7-8 record since John Pugh, who is bringing the men’s team to NASL in 2014, took over the club in 2003. And, more importantly, the Fury have shifted the focus of developmental women’s soccer in Canada from Vancouver to the capital.

“I think we have surpassed the Whitecaps,” said Outerbridge. “There’s been more focus in women’s soccer over the past few years with the Fury than with the Whitecaps. And we see it with the young players as well; the U17s just won a national championship.”