Mid Island Lightning field lacrosse teams were shut out of the medals at the provincial championships last month, but still came home some hardware.
The U12 Tier 2 girls team lost all four of their games at provincials in Langley, but only one by a margin of more than four goals, and received the Subway Team Sportsmanship Award. Head coach Naomi Walser was named the Warrior Sports Fair Play Coach, and Bria Grounds took home the team’s Warrior Fair Play Award.
“The girls gained a lot of experience over the weekend,” Walser said. “Their first two games, they were piecing things together, and by the third and fourth games they, were making very nice passes up the field and taking great shots. The teams they played were increasingly stronger, and each game our girls stepped up to the plate and gave them a good challenge. It was a lot of fun to see. Huge thanks to players who rotated through in goal. It really was a team effort and the players all worked really well together.”
The U15 Tier 2 boys Mid Island team played three games at their tournament in Burnaby, losing all three, although only one was a blowout. Lightning goaltender Devyn Zunti was named game MVP twice, and Aidan Collery received the award once. Collery led the team with five goals over three games, and Zunti also scored four times in the tournament, including a hat trick when he came out as a player in the second half of the team’s last game. Ben Nott received the Warrior Fair Play Award.
“The boys played and worked hard as a team, but you could tell that by the last game they were disheartened,” Mid Island manager Teri Zunti said. “It was a rough season for these guys as we had almost half of our practices cancelled due to weather and then we have no fields for the month of December, so considering they really didn’t have a lot of time to practice they did really well by making it to provincials”
Two Cowichan Valley players from the U13 age group opted to play out of the region when Mid Island didn’t field a team in that level. Reed Gallaugher and Seth O’Brien played for the Pacific Rim U13 Tier 2 team, which also qualified for provincials, going 1-2.
