Well after months of fundraising, training, games, etc the SurDel Sting finally acheived their goal of playing in the USA Cup in Minnesota. The Sting's first day of the tournament was a big one as they started things off with a bang winning 3-2 against the NSSA Ice, with goals by Jamie Cornes and Hailey Lemon (2). The Sting are playing girls that are anywhere from a year older and the competition is huge both in size and attitude so a win was massive. From there they were off to the opening ceremonies where 15,000 players from approx twenty countries all converge into an Olympic style walk in by the athletes. The Sting were the first Canadian team in and got a massive ovation from the rest of the Canadian fans.
Day #2 was a steam bath as the rains in the morning met the players as they had a private session with Minnesota Thunder head coach Manny Lagos. The Thunder play the Whitecaps so having some one on one time with him was a great experience. The morning rains let off and the 100 degree heat met the players in their second game against the tough and large Eastside Rebels. While the Sting did well to weather the storm and allowed only one shot on net the whole game, losing 1-0 was tough especially as the Sting cranked it up in the second and had some near misses. A tie would have been a fair result but against a team of this size and the those conditions they put on a great showing.
Day #3 had the Sting in the last round robin match and they came out flying against the Plymouth Soccer Association team. The Sting dominated from start to finish and even saw Kassandra Sandhu come on as a sub for the last three minutes which gave the team a huge lift as she has been injured for a period of time. Final score 6-1 with goals by Skye Moore (2), Kelsey Craddock, Armani Takhar, Kylie Robertson and Jillian Hunt.
Day #4 and the Sting were in tough. As they had played above thier heads in the round robin they found themselves in the Elite Eight portion of the A Pool and against a Minnesota Thunder (Whitecaps) Academy team. While the players gave a great effort and held their own for the first twenty minutes the Academy team managed a couple of rebound style goals to take the lead and took over in the second half. Final score 5-0. A tough way to go out but the Sting finished sixth out of seventeen teams and the five teams ahead of them were either state champions or academy teams. Finishing as the highest placed club team and being underage is a huge accomplishment and one we are all very proud of.
Day #5 had the Sting in an international friendly against CISC of Anchorage Alaska. Both teams wanted their last at the USA Cup to be on the winning end and a very good game went one way and the next with the Sting coming out on top 2-1, with goals by Brittany Costa and Jamie Cornes.
All in all a tremendous experience for the players to be around high level competiton and experience some international flavour and soccer styles. For a more in depth read you can go to the Sting website at http://www.eteamz.com/SurDelSting/
