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Stalwarts Kyah Simon and Michelle Heyman say the W-League will hit peak standard this season as clubs invest in both local and foreign talent to challenge the domination of reigning champions Melbourne City.Imports from 20 different countries have signed up for the ninth instalment of the womens domestic competition, complimenting a bevy of Matildas stars including Sydney FCs Simon and Canberra Uniteds Heyman.Among the new signings is Brazil international defender Monica Hickmann Alves, who joins Adelaide as the first from her country to play in Australia, while Japanese World Cup-winner Yukari Kinga is on board with Canberra United and Sydney are set to unveil their own South American signing this week.Though some contracts are still being finalised, clubs will collectively spend more than $1 million for the first time this season, a rise on the $920,000 outlay of the last when cashed-up City set a new benchmark in their inaugural campaign.Premiers and champions City scored 38 goals in 12 regular-season games, in a brutal lesson on what money can do.The club has lost its most potent strikeforces in Scottish star Kim Little and Matildas co-captain Lisa De Vanna, who is yet to sign anywhere.But in the duos place theyve signed American Erika Tymrak and veteran Australia goalkeeper Lydia Williams, while also retaining gun Welsh midfielder Jessica Fishlock and Matildas Steph Catley, Larissa Crummer, Laura Alleway and Teigen Allen.The general consensus is that City are still the team to beat, the gap just no longer looks as daunting to those chasing.Simon, whose largely unchanged Sky Blues team are after revenge for last seasons 4-1 grand final loss, believed the trophy was up for grabs.Its going to be the most incredible W-League season, just the international response and interest has been through the roof this year, Simon told AAP.Seeing so many international players coming to Australia to play the W-League not only boosts the brand of the game but also the quality of the competition.City pipped us at the post last year so well definitely be out to get one back on them.Heyman will be part of one of the fields most potent attacks alongside American duo Jasmyne Spencer and Celeste Boureille but still has her eye on City after they poached Williams from between Uniteds posts.City won it last year without Lydia, now theyve put one of the worlds best goalkeepers in the back its going to be a challenge, Heyman said.But Sydney FC have a very strong squad with all the girls going back there and theres so many internationals - I think this is the most weve ever had in the W-League.The standard is going to be another step above what it was last year - its hit its peak.The word is getting around how good the league is.W-LEAGUE IMPORTS - WHERE THEYRE FROMBrazil, Canada, Chile, Taiwan, Denmark, England, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, Wales. 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Charley Taylor Youth Jersey . -- Matt Rupert scored once in regulation and again in the shootout as the London Knights extended their win streak to nine games by defeating the Owen Sound Attack 4-3 on Friday in Ontario Hockey League action. SAN JOSE, Calif. -- University of North Carolina coach Anson Dorrance has some experience when it comes to the NCAA Womens College Cup. The coach has so much experience, in fact, that he has won three times as many national championships in the San Jose-Santa Clara area alone as the other three semifinalists now settling in at Avaya Stadium have won in total.But even Dorrance hasnt been a part of the seasons final weekend since 2012, the longest absence in his decades in charge of the dynasty from Chapel Hill. Not to worry. If he wants a refresher on how this all works, he need only ask Tar Heels redshirt junior defender Maggie Bill.It was just six months ago, after all, that Bill celebrated an NCAA title. And it was just 18 months ago that she felt the sting of coming up one game -- one goal -- shy of that accomplishment.Both moments came through lacrosse, a sport in which Bill is one of the best players in the college game. Good enough to have played for the United States womens national team and nearly earned a roster spot on the team that will try to win a world championship next year. But if she is less well known in soccer, and if the position she plays was largely unknown to her until recently, these Tar Heels are competing for a 22nd NCAA soccer title because she is no dabbler.Shes one of the reasons weve had this kind of year, said Dorrance, whose team plays West Virginia in Fridays semifinals. If she werent with us, I cant imagine where we would be.That Bill cant imagine life without both sports is why she is in California this week. The divided loyalties with lacrosse, which plays a spring season, arent unprecedented for the Tar Heels, but Bill is the first since Elizabeth Lancaster pulled it off a decade ago.When it came to choosing a college, Bill recalled that a lot of lacrosse programs were hesitant to share the Long Island product with their soccer counterparts. A few flat-out told her they wouldnt let her. She was ready to commit to lacrosse-power Northwestern, which was at least open to the two-sport idea if not, by her estimation, entirely enthusiastic, when her high school lacrosse coach advised her to check out North Carolina. In lacrosse coach Jenny Levy, who sought Dorrances counsel when she started her program from scratch two decades ago, she found someone who was not just willing but enthusiastic to make it work. So while Bill attends North Carolina on a lacrosse scholarship, her falls belong to soccer.Whether Bo Jackson playing football and baseball at Auburn or Marion Jones competing in track and basketball at North Carolina, even great two-sport athletes are generally better in one sport than the other. In one, they dominate by physical ability. They are better than everyone else. In the other, they compete as if that should produce the same result. Sure enough, it often does.Bill said Dorrance is often surprised at how much confidence a part-time soccer player shows.I have a little bit more confidence in my abilities with lacrosse, just because I have more, I guess, results to go off of with that, Bill said. I think Ive definitely gotten more confident over the years. Ive realized how a lot of preparing for games is mental and most of that is just confidence. Thats something Ive worked on a lot, just making sure I believe in myself.That trust in herself is also part of the reason Bill wasnt on the field when the Tar Heels won the lacrosse title earlier this year. After earning All-American accolades the previous season and leading the lacrosse team in scoring when it lost the title game by a single goal to Maryland, she redshirted the subsequent soccer season, in the fall of 2015. Then she did the same in the most recent lacrosse season, in the spring of 2016. She wanted to focus on academics, but she also knew she needed a mental break.Ive been going and going since I was in maybe eighth grade, just constantly playing games, constantly practicing, said Bill, who was competing in basketball, lacrosse and soccer at a varsity level by the time she was in middle school. Ive never reeally had a break.dddddddddddd Id have a month during December and a little bit of the summer, but I think I needed to take a step back and just kind of hit the reset button, I guess. I felt like I had a lot more to offer, both in soccer and lacrosse, and I think I needed to clear my head and focus more on my mental outlook and how I feel mentally in order to be able to perform the way I know I can athletically.I think I could have played both seasons out and kept going, but I feel like I wouldnt really be able to get closer to my potential.She continued to practice with both teams during their respective seasons. She was there outside Philadelphia when the lacrosse team won it all at the end of May. But stepping away from the actual games, from the mental energy required to prepare for and decompress from them, brought peace of mind.Just as they were willing to share her, Dorrance and Levy were willing to wait for her.With most of his lineup up for grabs after the departure of five seniors and the absences of three more likely starters because of the Under-20 World Cup or medical reasons, Dorrance was happy to have her back on the field this fall. And happy to continue to play her at center back despite a background that was almost exclusively as an attacking player until she got to Chapel Hill.We were trying to figure out a way to put a team on the field that could compete, Dorrance said. So we were looking at all the different pieces. We throw her in back there, and at first it was a bit rough -- it wasnt just rough for her, it was rough for the team.Slowly but surely, because she is an elite athlete but also incredibly coachable, she and the rest of the roster kept getting better.Bill plays between Julia Ashley and Hanna Gardner in the back of North Carolinas trademark 3-4-3 formation. That isnt an easy job even for someone who has the entire spring practice season to work at it. When the United States womens national team recently experimented with a back three, co-captain Becky Sauerbrunn described it as intimidating. And Sauerbrunn is as good as there is in the world. Defenders in a three-back formation have less protection and more responsibility. Get it wrong and, well, things like a 3-0 loss to USC happen. But in the past eight games, spanning the regular-season finale against Florida State, the ACC tournament and the first four rounds of the NCAA tournament, the Tar Heels have conceded just a single goal.Credit for that can be spread across the field, from Lindsey Harris in goal to the midfield work of players like co-captain Darcy McFarlane. But credit also the immovable object in the middle of the back line, a brilliant one-on-one defender nonetheless perfectly in sync with Ashley and Gardner.Not bad for a part-timer.In addition to her athleticism, she also has this incredible composure about her, McFarlane said. Which says a lot about her as an athlete. She can come from her lacrosse season and jump into soccer right away and doesnt skip a beat. Shes a really solid, composed presence in the back.She will be back on the lacrosse field this spring, although at Dorrances urging, professional soccer likely beckons when her time in Chapel Hill comes to an end. Should she finally pick a sport on which to focus fully, an idea that intrigues her, she may be North Carolinas best pro prospect.For now she is trying to heed the advice she would give the freshman version of herself.Dont worry about yesterday or tomorrow, Bill said. I think it would just be to really stay in the moment because, to me, its gone so fast and Ive had such a great time. But there are some moments where I wish I kind of was more present in that moment, instead of worrying about something else -- how I played before or being nervous about a game in the future.That moment affords her an opportunity this weekend to be a part of a second national championship in a matter of months, this time from the field. ' ' '