All-Star Tournament Reports

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U18 Girls Hornets Capture Aurora Tournament Title
Posted by () on Sep 23 2009
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The Markham Hornets Under-18 Girls House League All-Star team completed its most successful season yet by winning the title in the 2009 John Traganitis All-Star Tournament on the September 19-20 week-end, finishing on top of the four-team U17/18 division after three round robin games before squeaking out a tense win in the championship final.

The tournament victory was particularly rewarding because the team had to integrate five new players into the line-up with virtually no practice time together, since five of the team’s senior players had left town for university (although one came back to play on Sunday) and another player was out with an injury.
Markham’s first game was against the Barrie Spirit, winners of the last tournament the Hornets played in, and the new players wasted no time in making their impact. Alyssa Karpouzis, finally making her season debut after playing with the team last year, opened the scoring ten minutes after the opening kick-off. The lead was short-lived, as Barrie equalized three minutes later and then shocked the Hornets with a second goal nine minutes into the second half. Karpouzis brought Markham level four minutes later, and then Rachel Mathieu, also playing her first all-star game of the season, notched the winner with six minutes left to cap a thrilling come-from-behind 3-2 win.

Next up was Scarborough United, the team that Markham narrowly defeated in the Unionville Tournament final. Despite holding an edge in play, the Hornets succumbed 1-0 on a controversial goal that involved a collision between Markham keeper, Michelle Kwok, and the Scarborough striker.

Markham bounced back with a convincing 2-0 win against Shelburne Thunder in their final round robin game on Sunday morning. Cassie Guida, another one of the new all-star players, opened the scoring at the 12-minute mark, while Alana Gottschalk provided an insurance marker seven minutes into the second half. Kwok recorded the shut-out, ably assisted by a solid defense corps that was buoyed by the unexpected return of veteran Justine Cleworth, taking a break from her Waterloo University studies.

As was the case with the Unionville Tournament, the round robin ended with a three-way tie for first place, as Markham, Barrie, and Scarborough all had identical records of two wins and one loss. The goal differential tie-breaker eliminated Scarborough from the tournament and sent Barrie and Markham to the championship final. The goals-against tie-breaker gave the Hornets first place over Barrie in the round robin standings.

So the “dream final” pitted the Unionville Tournament champs against the Barrie Tournament champs. The two evenly-matched teams traded chances throughout the match but neither team could score until Cleworth lined up for a corner kick with only seven minutes remaining in regular time. Her bullet drive was too hot to handle for a Scarborough keeper, who was being distracted by a swarm of Markham Hornets, and the ball bounced off her hands and into the net for the championship-clinching goal. Kwok and the rock-solid defense protected the shut-out the rest of the way. Defender Rachel Tam was named the Markham MVP for the game.

Also contributing to the team's victory were: Michelle Addorisio, Natalie Cramarossa, Frederique Rajotte, Sarah Firth, Victoria Christofilos, Kristen McCulloch, Alyssa Paoletti, Natalie Mangos, Victoria Hood, and Jill Kooymans. The team was coached by Jerry Kooymans and Carmen Addorisio, and is sponsored by CIBC.

Last changed: Sep 23 2009 at 12:50 PM