Lady Saints soccer held their annual soccer tournament Friday and Saturday, hosting eight teams consisting of 2A and 3A classed clubs giving the Lady Saints valuable game experience against the top two levels of high school soccer in the province.
The Lady Saints opened the tournament with a 12-0 victory over Regina Luther to start off the tournament with a statement win. Leading the way for the Saints was Rita Fetsch who netted six goals in this game. Bryce Sherring scored twice and singles were added by Kaylee Ford, Morgan Shymanski, Shayla Merriam, and Hannah Nagy. Rookie keeper Amy Prybylski recorded the shutout.
Prybylski, who is just learning the position, had a solid performance in some of her first matches in between the posts.
Saturday was a different story for the Lady Saints club as top goalscorer Rita Fetsch was in Saskatoon for a tryout. Fetsch, who is by far the best girls player in the city and is relied on to score big goals for both the YUFC and SHHS showed her importance to the team in her absence. The Saints played extremely well in their second game against powerhouse St. Mary from Prince Albert but dropped a very close decision one-nil in the semi-finals. The Saints moved the ball around well and played strong defence, but were unable to piece together a moment of brilliance in the final third of the pitch. One would think that if the Saints had a full squad for the match at least a draw would have been in reach.
After the tough one-nil loss to PA St Mary's the Saints came across Regina Campbell in the bronze medal game, the Saints could not overcome a Campbell side that lost in extra-time in their semi-final match and took a 4-1 defeat to finish fourth. Despite finishing out of the top three the Saints played sound soccer in their defeats and showed signs of a winning team. Next they will head to Moose Jaw for five tournament games against top competition in a 16 team tournament. The Saints will be working on ball movement and overall conditioning as they prepare for another tough weekend of action to begin their campaign.
