After Carihi’s win at the investors tournament last week at home, they headed down to Victoria for the UVic Nike Spring Classic.
Carihi came out with a strong battle against Royal Bay, resulting in a 0-0 tie, pushing them into a penalty kick shootout.
Abbie Simms, Macayla Gray, Charlie Borrie and Megan Robertson all scored in the shootout leading the team to a big win to open the tournament.
Carihi’s second match saw some defensive miscommunication result in two early goals by McMath, but the girls were able to keep their composure and good passing through the midfield with efforts from Kaitlyn Dreger and Tanisha Matilpi, as well as a strong defense. This made Carihi go from losing the plays on the ball to looking very evenly matched against McMath.
Despite the remarkable attacking efforts of Joelyn Barley and Madison Ashcroft, Carihi was unable to make up that early 2-0 defect, but they battled hard right to the end, an ethic that would serve them well for the remainder of the tournament.
Game three against KSS was fought hard by both teams. The first half was a good physical battle from Carihi with excellent tackles from Alexis Giebelhaus and Kamiya Iwamoto, but the score was still 0-0.
Near the end of the second half, Carihi made some tactical adjustments and had a breakaway but was stopped by a KSS defender, resulting in a penalty kick. Simms put home the shot and carried Carihi to a 1-0 victory.
Within the first ten minutes of the team’s fourth game of the tournament, Carihi opened the scoring on a corner kick. The ball was beautifully crossed in by Svea Gottschalk and Emily Dreger got her foot around it and successfully put it in the back of the net.
From then on, Carihi played a more defensive minded game and was able to stop the forces of the Burnsview team.
Great defensive plays were made by Maja Nymann and Haley Wingert as well as many amazing saves from keeper Hayley Hunter, gave Carihi the win and sent them to the B Division final.
Carihi out-passed GNS in the B Division final with outstanding teamwork, but despite their great play, GNS took the lead with the first goal about 15 minutes in. Simms, however, found the ball on her foot two minutes later and found the back of the net to tie the game at 1.
It stayed that way to the end of regulation, resulting in another penalty kick shootout, which Carihi took once again on successful shots from Simms, Emily Dreger, Gray, Borrie and Robertson to win the game with Hunter again doing her part in the Carihi net.
The Tyees finished the tournament first in the B Division and fifth place overall out of 22 teams. It was a great experience all around for Carihi which will serve them well heading into the 12th Annual Intersport Invitational tournament, which they host this Thursday (April 21).
Games start at 10 a.m. with the Final scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
Hopes are high that the team can celebrate the school’s 50th birthday with a Cup win.