B.C. girls won two of three national lacrosse championship tiles in Whitby, Ont.
The provicial bantam and midget girls both came away champions over host Ontario, while the junior girls earned a bronze medal at the Ontario Lacrosse Festival at Iroquois Park last week.
The midget girls, including tournament all-star goalie Bianca Ballarin and New Westminster teammates Katie Browning, Delaney Davidson, Chloe Nottingham, Keeley O'Neill and Nadine Stewart and Carlene Spagnuolo of Burnaby, defeated Ontario 6-2 in the gold-medal final.
The B.C. midget team went unbeaten at the nationals, forging a 5-0-1 record in the double round-robin, including a 2-2 draw with Ontario on Aug. 7.
"It was really nice to see. We were trying a lot of different things in the round robin," said B.C. midget head coach Dan Stroup. "The team was unbelievable, their defence, transition and O (offence) was better than any other team."
Stewart topped the locals with seven goals and nine points, while O'Neill had four goals and four assists in tournament play. Spagnuolo chipped in with six markers.
The bantam girls, including New West's Hannah-Lise Bernoe, Caitlin Croxen, Graceyn Dean, Andreea Serbanescu and Priya Sidhu, had a tougher go of it, losing their opening game 3-1 to Alberta and one of two earlier meetings with Ontario in the double preliminary rounds.
"We had heard rumours about Alberta and how good they were; they showed up," said B.C. bantam head coach Chris Gill.
B.C. bounced back from the Aug. 6 loss to Alberta, edging the hosts 3-1. But Ontario came back in the return match, eking out a 4-3 win to set the stage for a winner-take-all final game.
B.C. turned the tables on its hosts, winning the gold medal 4-3 in a tight championship final that went down to the final minutes.
Trailing 3-1 in the final seven minutes, Ontario capitalized on a pair of power-play goals to draw even with B.C.
Mykhaela Johnson of Ridge Meadows scored the game-winner on a pick-and-roll to the net late in the game.
"It was pretty awesome," said Gill. "It was tough for the bantams, many of them hadn't been there before. It was a big thing for B.C. It was pretty special."
Bernoe and Dean were the top New West scorers with seven points, including five and four goals, respectively. Serbanescu also tallied four times in a six-point tournament contribution.
Alberta also had a strong bantam showing, finishing the tournament with a record of 5-2, including a 5-4 win over Ontario in the preliminary round, and the bronze medal.
The junior girls team of Leah Purdey and Megan Stewart of New West and Burnaby's Raffaella Caporale, Amanda Jackson, Orchid Kamron, Monica Mastromonaco and Angela Preissl, won the bronze medal following a 5-3 win over Nova Scotia. Ontario won the gold 8-1 over Alberta.
Fourteen-year-old first-year midget callup Megan Stewart of Ridge Meadows was named a junior all-star, leading the junior team with seven goals and four assists.
