LFA 5th in Province in Senior Field Hockey

The final game against Crofton was particularly enjoyable for our graduating girls, who have played Crofton so many times over the past few years in league and tournament play. In the derby game, Crofton had the edge in shots but a well-executed short corner was the difference for LFA and a wonderful end to a sensational tournament.

LFA 0 - 1 SOSS
The team arrived in Burnaby ready to play, but with a key player suffering from a bout of the flu. Alex Breukels '13 is our most experienced and accomplished player and has played a critical role in the central midfield all year long. We adapted our system somewhat and expected to lean more heavily on others throughout the middle of the pitch. Despite coming out a bit flat and getting pinned our end for the first few minutes, the girls found their game. As confidence in each other and themselves grew, we started to pick apart the SOSS defence and began to increasingly play the game in their half of the field.

Valendina de Bonis '13 increasingly dominated the central midfield, using quick auto-starts to great advantage. Alex's incredibly reliable hits were key too as SOSS committed to swarming the ball on defence. Val and Alex were able to distribute the ball well to fellow midfields Katie Pezzaro '13, Alessia Vaz '15, Liz Avren '14 and Taylor Chow '15 and our forwards worked hard to pressure the SOSS defence. The result was a massive edge in short corner opportunities, which unfortunately did not result in quality scoring opportunities. Georgina (Goje) Casey '15 played her best game of the year, getting our best opportunity, using her speed to create space and release a wicked hit that sailed just wide of the net.

SOSS was quality opposition though and had loads of skill and athleticism. Their counter attack forced several nice saves from Laura Guglielmin '15. In a game where we had the upper hand in opportunities and attack and made so few mistakes, it was an unfortunate turnover that released a speedy winger on the SOSS team. She crossed it into the middle where Laura met the other attacker left alone. The ball bounced in the air, over our sprawling keeper and into the net. It was a break for the opposition. To LFA's credit, they didn't deflate. Rather, the turned up the pressure. Alex dug deeper despite clearly being exhausted from sickness. Val made run after run to create opportunities down low. Meghan Cavers '15 and Cathy Canil '13 both had chances in the 'd' to release shots. The best opportunity came with only a couple of minutes left when a lovely pass from Val found Aoife O'Leary ‘13 alone in front of the net. Aoife one-timed the shot, beating the keeper cleanly, but as our bench rose to its feet in anticipation, the shot whistled wide. You had the feeling it "wasn't our game." We ended the game with a string of long corners where that we just couldn't convert into a goal scoring opportunity.

LFA 0 - 0 SMUS

In the afternoon game, all the pressure was on us. We needed points from the game to have a reasonable chance at a wild-card spot in the tournament's top draw. We also knew that our previous game against SMUS was one of our poorest efforts of the year. It was a 3-0 drubbing in our opening game of the Bridgman Tournament in Victoria. We anticipated using surprise to our advantage and the girls came out with more purpose and determination than they'd put out before this season.

It was a magnificent game of high school field hockey. End to end. Valendina had the unenviable task of covering SMUS' central midfielder, who may well have been the strongest player in the tournament. In this game, Val had the upper hand through sheer hard work and determination. She also continued to display a brilliant vision of the field, distributing the ball exceptionally well. Alex, still fighting aches and pains, was reliability personified with her vision and hits key to our ability to continuously attack and pressure the second-ranked SMUS team. Goje continued her fine form up front, again using her blinding speed to create opportunities.

As would be expected in a game that was so back and forth, our defence was called upon often. Maija Fiorante '13 had one of her best games of the season, playing the all-important central back position. Never once caught out of position, her timing was perfect throughout and she even managed to step into the play and create attack with some cunning moves and passing. Katie moved back to d, where her speed and brilliant hand-eye coordination made life impossible for the SMUS wingers. Sierra Rodrigues '14 played sound, responsible defence while adding to our counter attack with her powerful hit up-field.

Our most influential attack came off a series of short corners towards the end of the first half. Alex had her shot deflected high, but collected the ball amidst some reckless defending to get an opportunity that beat the keeper only to deflect off a SMUS foot. The follow up short corner was perfectly executed and she delivered a screamer that the goalie managed to get a foot on. It was a fine save. Moments later, Alex had another opportunity and unleashed another rocket of a shot that somehow went wide. Coaches Fitch and Vaz shared a glance, knowing that opportunities like that we had probably witnessed our best opportunity to score.

Whilst we did generate several more chances up front, Laura was confident and playing sensation hockey in net. Several times her confident slides and kicks not only made the save, but completely alleviated the pressure. The defence played bigger and stronger, knowing that Laura was "on" in net behind them. It went back and forth to the very final whistle.

The game was, on the whole, a turning point for the team: it wasn't just the result. Certainly the tie and the point against a top-ranked team was key. However, it was the realization that a combination of unrelenting effort and smart, disciplined hockey meant that we could compete with anyone in the tournament. As coaches, and hopefully for those parents watching, it was an almost magical moment to see the team revelation of just how good they could be.

LFA 3-0 GW Graham
Poor GW Graham were rather unfortunate to have run into LFA in the next game. All the hard work, commitment and learning paid off: LFA was now fully confident implementing their system and set-piece plays and, more importantly, they had a newfound belief in themselves to deliver when it counted. The result was an extraordinarily lop-sided game.

Still without a short-corner goal in game 3 of the tournament, we set up to deliver an option left. Alex lured the defender right and slipped the ball to Valendina. Val, who has a genuinely good flick at this level of hockey, also has the talent to unload a monster flick occasionally. This was a monster flick. Corralling the pass, Val stayed low and stepped hard into the drag. The ball absolutely shot off her stick, blew by the stunned keeper and hit the crossbar with an exceptional clang. There was an audible gasp from the spectators watching the game. A non-LFA spectator, standing near the LFA bench commented to the person beside him: "Uh-oh... that's not good for GW." We were five minutes into the game and LFA was swarming for a goal.

It would take a while longer before we finally solved the keeper with Alex scoring on a perfectly delivered hit off a short corner. It was the result of sustained pressure as our forwards worked with our midfield to create opportunity after opportunity. Liz Avren played both in the midfield and up front and her quick ball movement created openings and kept GW under pressure. Liz Pratt '13 had a lovely sweep hit denied by the keeper. It was, however, Jordyn Shaw '15 who doubled the score, making it 2-0 before the half ended. The second half was more of the same as Alex added to the lead early in the half. Fighting for a wild-card, we continued to search for goals to improve our goal difference but the GW defence held firm and we were content with the disciplined effort and a sound victory.

It was enough for LFA to qualify in the top draw with a 1-1-1 record. SOSS had won its three pool games, including the first one against us, giving them one of the top berths. We would face them a second time, with the winner going to the semifinals...

LFA 0 - 1 SOSS
After the victory of GW, the confidence was up and we were pleased with the draw, knowing we could be competitive against the team from South Okanagan. LFA came out charging in the second game. We immediately poured on the pressure, gaining a short corner and playing 'our' game with a reliance on passing and development up the field. SOSS countered with some lovely individual skill and a new tenacity.

Val, Alex and Maija continued to do great work through the middle of the pitch. For our early pressure, though, LFA found themselves defending more often than in the first encounter with SOSS. The slower turf compared to the first game played, perhaps, more to SOSS strengths. But we held firm. Kayla Little '15 was dominant in the backfield, keeping the SOSS speed and skill in check and working well with Maija in the middle and consistently getting the ball up to Katie and Taylor.

We still managed to get our opportunities, most often through the tireless running from Cathy, Goje, Jordyn, Liz and Meghan, but on the short corners we generated, the slow turf left us wanting more time against SOSS' speedy run-out. Our short corner defence was as strong as ever, pulling Goje back from forward for her incredible speed and having Laura in top form and making several fine saves and intelligent clearings.

The SOSS goal was the result of some sustained pressure. Laura had no chance on a very well taken two-on-one. It was not to be our game, but not through lack of effort. The girls left the pitch knowing they'd given it their best and it was satisfying to know we would enter the 5-9 placement draw having played some lovely hockey and being perfectly competitive with every team we'd faced.

LFA 1 - 0 Southridge
Friday morning arrived and it was the thirs beautiful, sunny, cool day in a row. The team was determined to continue the fine hockey that had been played to this point. The warm-up was brisk and, from the first whistle, LFA piled on the pressure. This game may have been the best display of team hockey we put together this year. Southridge was a worthy opposition, with some top talent but they had no answer for the exceptional passing and build-up that LFA demonstrated.

Val and Alex owned the midfield. Their effectiveness was made possible by the brilliant hockey played by the wide midfielders Alessia, Taylor and Katie. The few forays into LFA territory by Southridge were not just run down by Jane Kreuger '13 and Sierra, but their control and distribution, especially on the left side from Jane, meant our counter attack was even more potent. If not for the Southridge keeper and her fine saves, the result might have been very similar to the GW game. At halftime, it remained 0-0.

In the second half, Chelsea Colwill '14 stepped into net for us. She wasn't called on often, but did make a well-timed clearance to cleverly extinguish a Southridge opportunity. As we piled on the pressure, there were a few stunning plays. Some beautiful hits into forwards from Alex created opportunities, especially for Cathy who seemed to find the ball every time before she eventually had to come off with a badly hurt toe. We never rely on a single player to "take on" the other team, but Val had one fine run through the midfield that turned several defenders inside-out to the delight of our supporters.

We finally thought we had our lead after Alex had taken the ball right, got it high to Meghan who played a lovely ball across the front of the net. Taylor, left alone in front of the empty net calmly one-timed the ball… only on the uneven field turf, the ball bounced at the last moment over her stick. It was the unluckiest of bounces and the game stayed 0-0. With time starting to become a factor, it was off a crazy scramble that we finally got our goal up. The relief on the field, the bench and amongst our supporters could be felt. We continued to attack and generate offence, but the pressure was off and it was a convincing victory.

We were into the 5-6 placement game and playing some of our best hockey all year. Post-game, we wandered up to the Technical Table to discover that we were facing our long-time rival Crofton House School in the final game of the year.

LFA 1 – 0 Crofton
Our rivalry with Crofton is the stuff of LFA field hockey lore. This year, Crofton was fielding a particularly strong team and we had struggled to keep pace with them in our two previous meetings. Our 1-1 draw with them early in the season was well deserved and hard fought. The later 5-0 drubbing was, perhaps, our weakest game of the year. In addition to our bruised pride, our keeper Laura suffered an injury that kept her out for several weeks. We knew we were in for a tightly contested game but excited to face an old foe playing our best hockey of the season.

Crofton’s pace and organization was a challenge for us all game. At times we bent, but there was no sense of the girls breaking. If we had relied on Alex or Val or Maija or Alessia or Katie in previous games, we leaned heavily on Laura in this one. Laura was sensational. Possibly inspired by the wall that seemed to be around our net, we delivered an effective counter attack through our own good organization and an epic effort and sublime skill, particularly from Alex. Maija was a force in the backfield, while Sierra, Jane and particularly Kayla made every play necessary—from the routine to the heroic. Whilst our midfield were up against it, they delivered opportunities to our forwards. Cathy, playing on a badly hurting foot, ran through considerable pain, refusing all offers for rest in her last high school hockey game. Likewise, Val seemed to find another gear as the game wore on.

With only about 10 minutes to play, Kayla coolly shut down a Crofton attack, getting a call in our favour. Alex took control, using Val as decoy and playing the ball through to Katie, who used her considerable speed to create space and get the ball to a streaking Meghan. Meghan got the ball high to Cathy who played it into the ‘D’, smartly getting a short corner. It was the perfectly executed counter attack of so many (possibly monotonous) drills on cold, wet autumn afternoons on our little LFA pitch. True to the quality and ability to adapt, LFA abandoned its normal short corner routines, adapting to the ridiculously slow turf. Maija dragged it out to Alex on the short side. Alex coolly controlled it and drilled a shot towards the net as our forward line crashed the net. The shot was hard and deflected off a defender’s stick, ricocheting short side on the keeper who was wrong-footed by the deflection. It hit the backboard with a thud. The bench, the team, and the many supporters erupted. Relief. Joy. Purpose.

The last few minutes were incredible. Crofton poured on the pressure. Val made tackle after tackle. Alex was everywhere. Jane fought relentlessly to keep them out of the ‘D’. Maija was cool and poised, clearing ball after ball from our ‘D’. Despite several short corners and many shots that found the net, Laura stood tall. As the final whistle sounded, all hoping for an LFA victory shared in the moment where sport offers something special to everyone involved: a heart-warming conclusion to a brilliant season marked by a fabulous victory, weeks of sacrifice, hard work and the journey of a team coming together perfectly at the right time. The girls gathered for photos from the parent paparazzi, they shared hugs, and maybe a few tears too.

Thanks especially to Mr. Chow, who very kindly and generously arranged for a rose for each of our senior athletes who, upon playing in their last game, had their LFA field hockey ‘careers’ honoured: Alex, Val, Cathy, Jane, Katie, and Maija. Aoife, who was unable to play on Friday, played her last game for LFA on Thursday.

Thank you to all the athletes. This was an exceptional group of athletes and a very special team. Thank you to your parents for making it possible for you to make the commitment to Senior A Field Hockey. We’ll see you on the pitch sometime soon.