Six students spent their summer crushing the competition in provincials
By Brent Mattson
The B.C. Catholic
VANCOUVER--School may not be in session, but that didn't stop six Notre Dame Regional Secondary students from taking home gold July 10 in the Bantam Girls Provincial Lacrosse Tournament.
Notre Dame's Rachel Mackie, Carley Spagnuolo, Jolene Robinson, Marie Bond, Erica Busto, and Claudia Funaro were all part of the Burnaby team that went through this year's provincials undefeated, after a second-place finish in their regular season.
Success for this group is not unprecedented. Because players stay in an age group for two years, the six girls were on the same Pee Wee team in 2009, where they won the bronze medal in the provincials.
After losing to Coquitlam in the league playoffs, sending Coquitlam to the provincials, Burnaby defeated New Westminster Team 1 and Port Coquitlam in their league round-robin in order to reach the provincial.
In the semi-final game of the provincials, Burnaby was losing to New Westminster Team 2 until Funaro tied the game to send it into overtime. Burnaby won that game in OT and Funaro was named MVP of the game.
The next day, Burnaby met Coquitlam yet again in the provincial finals. Spagnuolo scored a hat trick and Busto scored. Burnaby led the game 4-1 at one point, before Coquitlam fired back with 4 unanswered goals.
Fortunately for Burnaby and the Notre Dame girls, Robinson tied the game with five seconds left, sending the game into overtime. Spagnuolo scored the game winner with just under two minutes left in overtime, and Burnaby held on to win the game.
Mackie and Bond dominated on defence, with Bond shutting down one of Coquitlam's key offensive players.
Besides the team victory, a number of the Notre Dame students were also recognized for their personal achievements.
Spagnuolo and Robinson were named game MVPs in the round-robin. At the recognition ceremonies, Robinson was also named to the B.C. All-Star team and Spagnuolo was named MVP of the tournament. Funaro also won the Fair Play Award.
The honour of being on the B.C. All-Star team meant Robinson competed with Team B.C. in the 2011 Bantam Girls Lacrosse National Championships in New Westminster July 23-28. Team B.C. came in second place to Ontario, losing 4-3 in the final game July 28. The girls' record in the tournament was five wins and two losses.
