WA Girls Take Out the Under 15 Lacrosse National Title
Tuesday October 7, 2014
by Lacrosse WA
WA Girls Take Out the Under 15 Lacrosse National Title
The West Australian Stars are celebrating success after taking out the Under 15 Girl’s National Lacrosse title on Saturday defeating Victoria’s Fire 10-7 at Success Regional Sporting Facility with a score of 10-7.
Western Australia led early with 2 goals scored by midfielder superstar Karri Somerville in the opening minutes of the game. Victoria quickly replied and at half time the score was 5-4 with WA only leading by 1 goal.
In the second half WA began to break away with Rhiannon Panting, Cassie Palmer and Emma Graham completely dominating the midfield continuously and tirelessly sprinting the ball out the Victoria’s attack creating fast transition and easy scoring opportunities for the Stars.
In the dying minutes of the game Victoria Fire scored a quick couple of goals which forced the WA Stars to wind down the final moments of the match just holding possession of the ball and not attacking the goals in case this caused a turnover. When the final siren sounded the WA Stars exploded with excitement.
Phoenix Lacrosse Club’s and WA Stars team captain, Emily Wills was named Most Valuable Player of the match leading and dominating WA’s defensive zone.
Head Coach Alana McKinlay had decided when selecting the WA Stars that this would be the last time she would coach the Under 15 WA team after four years in the job. This last campaign proved her hard work has paid off with a National Title to her name. McKinlay said, “It was a long process of 4 years for this to occur and along the way I got the honour and privilege to coach some of the most amazing and talented girls all of which are turning in to beautiful, driven, passionate women and this is incredible to see. This was my final team to coach but I hope in those 4 years I have been able to teach those girls not just lacrosse skills but about lacrosse passion, sportsmanship, pride, humbleness, dedication and confidence in themselves. I want to thank each and every player, parent and support staff I've had along the way I couldn't have achieved this without you.” McKinlay and her Stars were successful this year under the motto One team, One dream.
Many of these young players are currently in the squad of the Australian U19 team vying for selection to compete at the U19 World Championships being played in Scotland next year.