A group of Salmon Arm’s youth soccer elite were invited by the European Football School (EFS) to compete at the Northern Arizona Invitational tournament in Flagstaff, AZ from May 19-21.
Julia Hart and Phoebe Barnes joined the EFS U15 team in Flagstaff, while Hannah Tarzwell, Avery Hanson, Lina Fankhause, Angalena Cross and Megan Hart played for the U17 team in the tournament.
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Both the U15 and U17 teams went undefeated in reaching the finals and finished second in their divisions, taking home silver medals from the tournament.
The U15 squeezed out a 1-0 victory in their first preliminary game against the Arizona FC Rebels and tied 1-1 against the North Scottsdale Sandsharks, putting them into the semi-finals for a 4-1 victory against the Aztecas FC. In the finals they had a rematch against the Sandsharks, falling 2-0 to take the silver.
The U17 girls beat out the Arizona FC Select team 3-0 in their first match and toppled the Roadrunners Youth FC 2-0 in their second preliminary game. In the semi-finals, the EFS team knocked the Far-West Avondale FC out of the running with a 1-0 victory before facing the Flagstaff Revolution FC and falling 5-2 in the finals.
Despite their stellar record in the preliminaries and semi-finals, both teams came up short in the final matches.
This outing to Flagstaff is the 24th international trip organized by EFS since 1999, with yearly trips to Europe and the U.S. to compete and train with other high-level soccer players.