The girls have finally finished their State Cup campaign for 2009 after a great run to the Semi-finals of the competition. After being put in a difficult group we did things the hard way in the group stages. Our first game was won 9-0 against a LOBO's side who struggled to compete. The second game was an early lesson about underestimating a team. We played a Premier 1 team in LCSC, who clearly came to MVP to frustrate us and catch us on the counter attack. They did that very well and deservedly beat us 0-1, we just struggled to break them down. Luckily we used this as a catalyst to improve. This meant that we need to win our last game against a strong MRL team Michigan Rush. We came out flying in the last group game to beat the Rush 3-0, with a first minute goal from Melissa Hogan and a last minute goal from Cassidy Hunter enough to win us the group and set us up with a match against Vardar in the Quarter Finals. The quarters and semi finals were played in Saginaw. Vardar were shell shocked as we came out strong again scoring two in the first six minutes. This was a great team performance and we quickly moved 5-0 up after 35 minutes. That game was only marred by the injury to our GK Kristiana Griffith in the second half. Forward Melissa Hogan replaced her as a stand-in keeper and kept a clean sheet for us.
In the semi-final the next day we played the Gators who are current State Cup Champions. Kristiana bravely battled on to play for us and made a great save early in the second half to keep the scores level. The Gators struggled with our midfield in the first half as we dominated the possession, and were forced to put their #10 Megan Marsack back into defensive midfield to try and control the threat of an influential Hailey Yondo. As we tired, the Gators caught us out of position to take the lead. We came close to an equalizer but the Gators were too strong and went on to win 3-0.
Reaching the semi-finals was a great achievement in this age group as since U13 the semi finals have always been Vardar, Gators, Hawks and Novi. So we upset the form books. We now look forward to completing our MRL season before tournaments in North Carolina (CASL Showcase) and Florida (Orange Classic).
