The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Hapnot Kweens played in the soccer provincial championships this weekend and finished 4th. We went into the tournament ranked 5th, which is the highest ranking we have ever had. Our first game was against Swan Valley (ranked fourth on Friday, which was a typical 'Hapnot game'; the game was tied 3-3 after regulation time, went into overtime where it was still tied, and we won it 5-4 on penalties. Scoring for the Kweens were Delaney McIntyre with two goals, and Sarah Petalik with one. The winning penalty was scored by Rhianne Rodnisky. The second game was the semi final. This was the first time a Hapnot Kweens team had ever played in a semi final in a provincial tournament. Our opponents were the Niverville Panthers, who were the top ranked team and we knew it would be 'the game to win'. The Kweens got off to a great start with a quick goal scored by Caitlyn Ticzon, but the Panthers showed why they were ranked first by scoring two goals in reply ending the first half of play 2-1 in the lead. Following the break, Petalik scored a quick goal to put Hapnot back into the game until Niverville scored another to take a 3-2 lead into the last minute of play when McIntyre equalized to make it 3-3. Starting the first half of 15 minutes overtime, we knew that Niverville would hit us hard and they did. Scoring chances were pretty equal and we were in the last minute of overtime, still tied at three, when Niverville scored a great goal to make it 4-3 and win the game. Disappointed sure, but for the neutral observer it was a great game; to take the first ranked team to overtime shows how far we have come as a team. During the game, we suffered injuries to Rodnisky, and Tiffany Davidson and an aggravated knee injury to Jenna Klause, which left us with only three experienced defenders, going into the bronze medal game against the bronze ranked Garden Valley (Winkler). We had 13 healthy players. No excuses here, we gave it our best, but were very tired after 'leaving everything on the field' for the Niverville game. We came out flat, and lost the game 5-0. With a small squad of players and three bad injuries, we could only do so much. The girls gave it their all, but we could not match the fresh legs of Winkler. The season ended as the most successful season the kweens have ever had, unbeaten in regulation time in pre zone tournaments, losing only once to swan valley in a penalty shoot out at the Neepawa tournament. Unbeaten at zones, and being ranked 5th going into provincials. The final fourth place ranking turned out to be very accurate. The provincials ended up with the first ranked Niverville winning, second ranked Stonewall finishing second and third ranked Winkler finishing third, Hapnot started fifth and ended fourth. Now we look forward to next season, we have a good nucleus of returning players, and some very good Grade 8s coming through, our target for next season is at least another fourth place finish and we certainly want to improve on that.
