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Riptide soccer team gains valuable experience

Saturday in Victoria, the U14 Riptide girls played an exhibition match against the Vancouver Island (VI) Wave Tier 1 division. The Wave are a younger group (U13) and play in a higher tier. The game was arranged to provide experience for the U14s — and an experience it was.
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Saturday in Victoria, the U14 Riptide girls played an exhibition match against the Vancouver Island (VI) Wave Tier 1 division. The Wave are a younger group (U13) and play in a higher tier. The game was arranged to provide experience for the U14s — and an experience it was.

Right from the beginning the game had a quick pace. Although the Wave was younger and smaller, their quickness on and off the ball was evident. The U14s maintained pace with their speedy counterparts, but at the 18th minute, a Wave player cut inside the six-yard box and roofed the ball top corner. The game continued back and forth until minute 30 when the Wave made it 2-0 on a penalty kick resulting from an over-aggressive error on defence. During the half time pep talk from the Riptide coaches, the message was easy. Let the ball do the work and support one another — good things will happen. As the second half started, good things did happen. At minute 55, a brilliant run from defender Savannah Meeres made her way to the top of the Wave 18 yard box. She took a turn and shot the ball on net, the keeper gave out a rebound and midfielder Sienna Stigant made no mistake and buried it making it a 2-1 game with plenty of time left.

The game continued but at the end the Wave capped one more making it a 3-1 finish.

The U14 Riptide team has played two exhibition games against higher level opponents in preparation for their 2017/18 season. These higher level games challenge the players and prepare them to reach the next level.