The YRHS Lady Raider defence was on point for nearly the entire competition, however the offence was nearly non-existent, resulting in an overall record of 1-4 for the Lady Raiders at Moose Jaw鈥� annual Soccerfest tournament this past weekend.
The orange-clad ladies allowed just seven goals in three round-robin games, dropping their tournament opener to Regina鈥檚 Campbell Collegiate聽 4-0 before fall twice more in shutout fashion, losing their final two round-robin games first to Lloydminster 鈥� Holy Rosary 1-0, followed by a 2-0 defeat to Moose Jaw 鈥� Vanier.
Injuries and inexperience also plagued the Lady Raiders, who lost five players to multiple ailments. 鈥淲e had five injured players on the bench so we only had about three active subs by the end of the round-robin,鈥� mentioned YRHS Lady Raider assistant coach Samantha Okrainec, adding that the lack of experience also factored heavily in the lack of offence. 鈥淲e have a lot of new players on our team as well, so they aren鈥檛 quite used to the level of play we saw from some of these teams here.鈥�
The 0-3 round-robin record meant that the Lady Raiders moved to the fourth place playoffs, where their offensive woes continued in a 5-0 loss to Balgonie.
That loss dropped the Lady Raiders to the last place game, where they finally hit their offensive stride in a 5-0 win over Estevan.
Deanna Kitzul and Leah Zulyniak led the way for the Lady Raiders with a brace (two goals) each, while Sarah Novakowski also found the scoresheet in the Regional鈥檚 second win of the season; both wins coming against the Elecs. 鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of nice to have an advantage and know that we have an advantage against them, but at the same time we don鈥檛 go into the game thinking that we鈥檙e going to win because anything can happen,鈥� offered Okrainec, continuing, 鈥淚t鈥檚 nice playing a team that we know we can beat and it鈥檚 a big confidence booster to end the tournament with a win and head into the next few weeks of practice with a good feeling.鈥�
The YRHS Lady Raiders will now focus on training for the 2015 SHSAA Regionals tournament on October 23 at an as of yet unknown location. They鈥檒l also look to schedule some exhibition matches against Sacred Heart and Balgonie.
