KENNEWICK, WA – The women’s varsity traveled to the Tri-Cities this past weekend for the Three Rivers Shootout.  The much anticipated weekend led for a great weekend of lacrosse and a valiant effort on the women’s varsity team.  After a very long drive to Richland, especially after Coach Bona and myself missed the turn for Pasco in Ritzville and drove all the way to Vantage, we arrived safe and sound along with all the girls and got some rest before the big day.

We arrived at the fields along the Columbia River for three games, first against Sandpoint/Gonzaga Prep.  These two teams had to combine because they did not have enough girls.  We saw some real intensity in the first game because the girls were so pumped up and ready to play some LAX.  We put Sayre White (JR, Hellgate) in as starting center and we saw some great effort on Sayre’s part.  She did an excellent job in as center and we saw a good deal of effort from Sayre and all the other girls as well.  Karmella Mariscal (SR, Hellgate) scored her first goal ever for the team and also made some great assists. Kelsay Adcock (FR, Big Sky) played very well, scoring for Missoula Elite and also showing some great potential as center.  Kelsay had many possessions at the center draw even though she was playing attack wing.  We might be seeing Kelsay playing center in the near future!   We also saw some fantastic saves from our goalie Sara Hanson (SR, Hellgate). Missoula Elite women’s varsity played very well in this game and ended with a victory against Gonzaga Prep and Sandpoint!

After the first game, Missoula Elite women’s varsity jumped into their next game against Wenatchee immediately.  We saw a turnover from the first game game where Elite was dominating in offense to Wenatchee dominating in offense.  Wenatchee was able to pick off most of the center draws and gain possession immediately, taking fast breaks to goal.  They were able to keep the ball down in our goal and were making great cuts to goal.  Elite’s defense was broken down from the lack of communication and also the amount of fouls against Elite.  Coach Bona and myself saw some great effort out there even though our defense was broken down and we were not getting possession at the center draws.  Cassandra Hintz (JR, Hellgate) played goalie for her first time ever during this game and she showed some major progress in her goal keeping and made some fantastic saves for Elite!  For this game we also had to lend Kelsay Adcock, Julia Michels (FR, Big Sky) and a few others to Wenatchee because they did not have enough players to make a full team of 12.  Both of these girls scored goals for Wenatchee but showed great sportsmanship for volunteering to play for the other team!  Elite fell to Wenatchee 6-3 but the women’s varsity had a great shot at winning this game and hopefully in Spokane we will see a successful comeback!

After a a nice long lunch break we had our next game against Three Rivers.  This was our most important game of the day because last season the girls were defeated by Three Rivers and they really wanted to come back to this game with full intensity and determination.  This game was played 7 on 7 because Three Rivers were down a few players.  We needed to see some major hustle out there in order to defeat Three Rivers both offensively and in defense. Luckily, we saw that from Elite.  Jill Lindbergh (SR, Hellgate), our starting center, showed some great playing out there and made a few goals for Elite.  Brooke Hess- Homeier (JR, Hellgate) did some great hustling out there and made some fast breaks to goal.  We saw some great defense played by Carleigh LeBlanc (SR, Hellgate) and Hannah Leonard (SR, Hellgate).  Both of these girls also scored goals.  Sara Hanson was back in goal and made some excellent saves.  Both of the twins, Emmi and Hannah Johnson (SRs, Hellgate), did some great hustling out there and showed some real potential in as attack and defensive wings.  Gretchen Gerlach (SR, Hellgate) played both great offense and defense in this game and communicated very well with her teammates as acting feeder and calling plays.  Makenna Risner (JR, Drummond) played very well also for her team and played great offense and made great cuts and assists in the 12 meter fan.  Some of our younger players also did very well especially Haleigh Smith (FR, Sentinel) and Dessa Lennox (FR, Hellgate).  We saw great defense from Haleigh and great offense from Dessa.  Overall it was a great game and Elite came back with a victory over Three Rivers!

We would like to thank Three Rivers for hosting this event and would also like to thank the refs and the parents as well.  Thank you parents for driving all that way!  We wouldn’t be able to do it without you!  Coach Bona and myself are looking forward to the next games at the tournament in Spokane at Gonzaga Prep on May 8th!  Thanks again to everyone!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 29th, 2010 at 1:50 pm and is filed under Women's Varsity, zFeatured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.