Three Shuswap Ringette squads returned from the 2016 Sweetheart Ringette Tournament with gold, silver and bronze medals.
Despite the intense competition the Open A 18+ team won the gold medal, the silver medal was claimed by the U14B team and the U16B team took home the bronze medal. Nearly 90 ringette teams from B.C. and Alberta converged on Kelowna for the 2016 Sweetheart Ringette Tournament during the weekend of Feb 5 to 7.
Open A 18+
The Shuswap Open A 18+ team started the tournament on Friday with a 7-2 win over Kelowna. The second game, however, featured a tougher Surrey White Rock team which defeated Shuswap 5-2. Saturday morning started with an exciting game against Burnaby-New West, with Shuswap holding out for a 2-1 victory. The second game was another exciting contest against North West Vancouver. After a scoreless first half, Shuswap got down to business and put three quick goals in the net to win the game 3-0. In the semifinal game, Shuswap met Burnaby NewWest again, coming out on top 4-1 and earning a spot in the gold-medal game. The gold-medal game was intense, and was tied at the end of regulation time. In the four-on-four overtime, Shuswap’s goalie, Colleen Moorhouse, stood on her head and Riley Pickrell made a highlight reel, top-corner backhand shot to win the gold medal.
U14
The U14 team has been on a roll this year, with a second silver medal in as many tournaments. They cruised through the first three games of the Sweetheart round robin, with convincing wins over Vancouver-Richmond and Fraser Valley on Friday, and Burnaby-New Westminster on Saturday morning. The late Saturday afternoon game against Prince George, however, was a nail-biter. Shuswap was down 2-0 with only four minutes left in the game when Prince George got into penalty trouble. With the goalie pulled, the Thunderstruck capitalized bringing the score to within one. With the net still empty, Shuswap thrilled their fans and scored the tying goal with a minute left.
The semifinal was an early morning contest against Delta, and was a seesaw battle before Shuswap pulled ahead late in the game and added an empty netter to win 6-4. There was little time to rest though, as the gold-medal game took place in the early afternoon against arch rival Vernon. The game was tightly fought, but the tired Shuswap team was not able to score again after going down 3-1.
U16
The U16 team’s first game was against a team from Hinton, Alta. A tough-fought game ended in a 7-5 win for the Albertans. Goals were scored by Tori Keehn, Kassi Archambault, Victoria Sirko and Stephanie Martin. In the second game of the day, Shuswap played Westside, winning 3-2. Goals were scored by Sirko, Jordyn Turner and Archambault. Saturday morning, the team battled Quesnel. They played hard, fast and fearless and it showed as the final score was 18 to 1. Later that afternoon Shuswap battled their Interior rival, Vernon winning 4-3. On Sunday, Shuswap came up short in a 6-5 loss to Bow View from Alberta. Alexa Hadath opened up the scoring for Shuswap in the bronze- medal game. After the first half, Shuswap held on to their one-goal lead against Lacombe. In the second Lacombe tied the game. With nine minutes left in the second Archambault scored, but Lacombe came back to tie only a minute later. With just 50 seconds left on the score board, Stephanie Martin scored in the top corner, winning the bronze medal.