The Peter Skene Ogden (PSO) Eagles Senior girls’ soccer team placed sixth out of nine teams at the inaugural Hope Secondary tournament last weekend.
“We were missing a few key players, but all the girls battled hard and were right there in every game,” says Coach Sean Glanville.
“It was really nice for the girls to win a couple games; our nucleus of girls are Grade 11s this year and there’s been a noticeable improvement with them from last season. They will all be back next year, hopefully, and we should continue to get better.”
PSO split the first four round-robin games Friday with two wins and two losses.
In game 1, they lost 2-0 to Credo Christian School from Langley. Credo would go on to lose the final in a shootout to eventual champions Similkameen from Keremeos.
The Eagles bounced back to defeat Abbotsford Christian 3-0 with goals from Kailey Lund, Ashley Holyk and Allison Carr.
They then defeated Merritt Secondary by an identical 3-0 score with Rylea Pigeon scoring twice and Holyk adding another. Chantelle Walters picked up both shutouts in goal.
PSO dropped its final round-robin game to bronze medal winners, Chilliwack’s Unity Christian, 2-0. The Eagles finished the round robin fourth in points and was placed in the B division playing for 4-6th place.
The Eagles would have to dig deep Saturday as they lost Holyk and Carr to rep soccer commitments and striker Abbey Foote was ill, leaving them with no subs in record-breaking hot temperatures. On Saturday morning, PSO played hosts Hope and dropped a 1-0 decision despite carrying the majority of the play.
In its final game, PSO fell 2-1 to Surrey Christian School. Chantelle Walters scored a great goal that was set up by Charlie McQueen to tie things up midway through the second half. However, Surrey scored a lucky game winner late to earn the win.
“Of all 14 girls who travelled, I was impressed with every single one of them and they worked extremely hard. On Saturday, with no subs and the heat and playing six soccer games in 32 hours, you could see how exhausted they were but they battled right to the end,” says Glanville.
The Eagles played a pair of Grade 8s, including Foote and Ivy Sahara, who both fit in well. Karlie Easton, Dayna Meger, Sereena Alex, Isabella Cibrian, Anja Dunk and Kira Saenger all made very solid contributions on defence all weekend.
Walters and Lund were chosen as the Eagles’ two Most Valuable Players.
The Eagles are looking to set up some home-and-away dates with Williams Lake to stay busy this April. They have an exhibition weekend in Victoria in early May and will be hosting the North Central Zone Championships, May 15-16.