The Women’s team traveled to captain Sarah Whitley’s Alma Mater for their first tournament of the 2010/11 season. The tournament featured 13 teams from all across the United States as well as the defending Tar Heel Champion, Alberta from Canada.
We faced off Chicago Inter in our first pool game. Boston was forced to reorganize their offense after playmaker Sarah Whitley was taken out of the competition early with a head injury after an unlucky foul. Boston took some time to digest the loss of their captain, while Chicago responded with fast breaks and easy goals, resulting in a 12:5 half time lead. After the break, Boston didn’t give up and put up a strong fight. Eva-Jasmin Freyschmidt and Anne Coulter continued to find openings from the wing and pivot position. It was too late, however, to make up for the 7-goal difference from the first half. In the end, Chicago’s international experience and height advantage resulted in a 24:15 victory for their team. In our second game, we met the newly established Ocean New Jersey Futures Team. Boston dominated the entire game, netting 28 goals. Erin Kizer was on a run, contributing 9 goals, and Anne Coulter continued to impress, adding 6. The difference in age and strength allowed us to take some speed out of the game and test some of our studied combinations.
The Ocean girls never gave up, and managed to score 2 goals in the end both celebrated by the crowds. Ocean Jerseys, the future is yours! Our next opponent was the host Carolina in a cross-over game. Boston was tired from the two earlier games, and allowed Carolina a 9:7 lead. After the break Boston came back and managed to tie. Decimated by injuries, we had to watch Carolina take the lead again, ending the day with a 12:19 loss. On the second day of the competition, we had an early morning game against the DC Diplomats. Anne Coulter once more showed off her skills playing stellar defense and scoring 7 goals. Exhausted from the earlier games, we didn’t manage to keep up our game until the end, leaving the court frustrated and defeated. In our final game for the 7th place against the Landsharks from Colorado we were determined to end the tournament with a fight. Colorado’s squad, composed of 8 Junior and Senior National Team players, proved to be the strong opponent that we expected. Colorado was leading from the beginning, but was never able to take off. Due to excellent team work the game remained a close match and a tough fight for every ball. Dina Kahriman showed her best performance of the tournament, stopping nearly all backcourt shots. In offense, Anne Coulter continued to make the goals for Boston. Despite an 11:12 loss, we were able to demonstrate that we have it in us to fight and can’t wait for the next tournament. The Championship ended up going to Chicago Inter who took down last year’s champion Alberta 30:23. Dynamo took home Bronze after defeating host Carolina and losing to Alberta in a heart-breaking semi-final with a one goal difference.
S. Hansen