The Lac La Biche Lightning Queens U14 girls soccer team went into the Lakeland Cup in St. Paul on June 27 and 28 hoping to cap off their season with a gold medal, but fell just short, coming home with silver instead.
The team had a strong showing at the tournament, posting a 5-1 win over St. Paul in their first game, before losing to eventual champions Bonnyville 2-1 in their second match. They bounced back from the loss to beat Vegreville 3-0, earning a spot in the finals and a chance at redemption against Bonnyville, but it wasn’ t meant to be.
The Lightning Queens got out to an early lead, but Bonnyville managed to tie the game just before half-time. With the score still tied and the time running out, Bonnyville got a shot on goal and pounced on the rebound with less than a minute left to secure the gold medal.
“Our keeper made a great save but the rebound went to an open Bonnyville player, and she made no mistake,” said Lightning Queens coach Dianna Kryvenchuk.
Kryvenchuk said the coaching staff were impressed with the team’ s effort this season. All but four of the players on this year’ s team were in their first season at U14, and Kryvenchuk said that bodes well for next year’ s team.
“We had a really good season, we were impressed, we actually didn’ t anticipate doing as well as we did,” she said. “We’ re looking forward to next year because most of our team should stay together, and that always helps.”