The best youth soccer players in the Southeast traveled to Murfreesboro last week for the 2011 US Youth Soccer Region III (South) Championships at the Richard Siegel Soccer Park.
There was a late addition to the tournament after the field was announced. A local team, the Murfreesboro Lady Strikers 93 squad took the place of a team out of Mississippi in the Under-18 Girls division.
“This was huge for Murfreesboro, to be the team to represent the city is huge,” Lady Strikers head coach Alan Oates said.
Lady Striker member and Oakland student Ashley Bush added, “It was a lot of fun. It was kind of surprising and exciting to be playing in the tournament.”
Also, three Rutherford County players are on the Brentwood Select 94 team in the Under-17 girl’s age group.
In its first game of pool play, the Brentwood Select 94 team pulled off an upset over the defending national champions, Solar Red 94 with a score of 4-1. Riverdale student, Ashlie Watson scored the first goal in the 26th minute, when her shot bounced off the goalkeeper hands.
Watson said she was excited to play in front of family and friends and also get a big win at the same time.
“Our own family gets to see us play,” Watson said. “It was crazy to play the defending national champions, but we were ready.”
Siegel star Tori Hawkins added “Being in Murfreesboro, it’s very dreamlike to play in my hometown. It’s great to be two minutes from my backdoor and be playing here.”
As for the local team, the Lady Strikers came in with pretty much the same squad that won the 2009 National President’s Cup. However, they were down a few players because of injuries and other plans since the team was not added to the tournament until the last minute.
“These girls have played together for several years, and they know each other really well,” Oates said.
The Lady Strikers’ opening game did not go very well as they fell 4-0 to 92 CASL Spartan Elite. The Lady Strikers were only down a goal at halftime, but gave up three goals in the second half. One of the top players, Blackman standout Kathrine Smith, suffered a head injury during the game and had to go to the hospital. She was out for the rest of the tournament.
In the second game, the Lady Strikers just had enough players to fill out the starting roster and lost 7-0 to the Dallas Texans 93 Red team. Injuries kept piling up and the team had to forfeit its final game in group play, because it did not have enough players.
“It was nice, since I never played in regional,” La Vergne’s Hawley Nicolson said. “This was different experience with so many people watching you play.”
For the Brentwood team, they split their two remaining group games and it was enough to advance to the knockout round. In the quarterfinals, they got two goals from Chesney White in the second half and defeated the Lady Renegades 2-1 out of Florida.
They had made history by being the first Tennessee team to make a regional final since 2002 after beating United FA 94 Elite out of Georgia 1-0 in the semifinals thanks to an Allison Kington goal in the 82nd minute. It was a measure of payback since that squad put Brentwood out of last year’s regional semifinals.
“It’s really surreal,” Brentwood 94 Girl Premier Head coach Brandy Gagliano said. “We know we can compete with the best in the nation.”
Bad luck hit the Brentwood team in the title game against NASA 12 Elite II out of Georgia.
The Georgia team won the title after Brentwood gave up an own goal late in the second half. Despite the miscue Gagliano was proud of her team’s performance, especially playing their sixth game in six days. “We definitely saved our best game for last.”
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