It was a close tournament, but the Summerland Secondary School girls’ soccer team could not advance to the Provincials.
“We missed out of the provincials by one point,” said John Holman, coach of the team.
The soccer team had advanced to the Valleys and competed against top Thompson and Okanagan teams last Tuesday and Wednesday.
The action began with a 1-1 tie in a game against George Elliot Secondary School from Lake Country.
“Really and truly, we should have won that game,” Holman said following the tournament.
The next game, against Valleyview Secondary School from Kamloops ended in a 2-1 loss for the Summerland team.
Despite the loss, Holman said the game was a strong effort for the team.
While Valleyview has a reputation as a strong team, Summerland took the lead early on and Kamloops was not able to score the winning goal until the final 10 minutes of play.
Holman added that the Kamloops team has much larger players than are on the Summerland team.
“The Summerland girls are much smaller in size than who we played against, but these smaller girls are very skillful,” Holman said. “We didn’t lose because we were outmatched.”
Summerland’s win in the tournament came on the Wednesday, in a 6-1 win against Clarence Fulton Secondary School from Vernon.
While the Valleys mark the end of soccer action for the team for this season, Holman anticipates another strong team next year.