The women's soccer league had their end of season tournament last weekend amidst uncommonly sunny weather and dry fields. In an interesting scheduling move, it was decided that each team would play the other five on Saturday, with the semifinals and finals to be played out on Sunday, provided the players weren't too played out.
As one of the referees, I was fortunate to have caught some of the action from up close. The pace and touch of our local league has become high calibre, and running after these women kept me panting. Some of the highlights I noticed during day one were a seriously nicely hit free kick from Marshall Mayhem's Andrea Aleong over the wall and into the bottom corner, CALs Crushers Laura Nickerson running through a pack of players and perfect backline playmaking from Coast Progressive Blazers' Nadine Schlingerland and Mayhem's Laura Ewert. L&J Contracting Fus-ions' Hannah Josephson and CALs' Amy Campbell seemed to cause the tide to turn in their games by the force of their relentless wills. These women just keep on coming. Some great goaltending was also showcased, as Gibsons Pigs' Reagan Covey stonewalled Xenichen Ya Yas' strikers, and Fusion's Jessica Wells managed to put herself between the goal mesh and a penalty shot from the hardest kick in the league, Teresa Craigan. Ya Yas' Crystal Dixon probably had the best record for the weekend and also saved a penalty shot.
By Sunday morning, there were four teams still standing, as Fusion and the Pigs set up their folding chairs and burrowed into their team coolers to get comfy and watch the remaining matches. Mayhem, Ya Yas and CALs were eyeing each others' matches throughout the weekend and played close ones amongst themselves. Blazers joined the big three as the outsider long shot. The first semifinal was between CALs and Ya Yas who had tied each other in round robin play. The game was again close. Campbell was dominant in the midfield, until she went out with an injury. Ya Yas clinched it when Miranda Joe slid in behind the initial shot to punch the rebound into the net. In the other semi, Mayhem, not surprisingly went ahead as Trina Geisbrecht and Brooke Whalen put the screws to the Blazers' defence. Blazers avoided the depth of Mayhem's midfield by playing long balls to the wings that were then crossed in and converted by Christine Campbell and Jenika Genevieve to put Blazers through to the final.
In the final, you couldn't tell these teams had just finished playing seven matches, and your joints ached just watching them. Blazers Astrid Bradbury hit nice place kicks that sailed just wide, while Pam Bunbury and Sara Agnew sprinted after balls in the Ya Yas' end. At the other end of the pitch, Ya Yas' Tina Joe charged the net and almost tapped one in. Eventually it was Ya Yas' high scoring Marlys Josephson, who notched nine over the course of the tournament, to put two breakaway balls into the net to take the match.
