The Orillia Lady Kings earned some well-deserved hardware at the Ontario Women’s Field Lacrosse Provincials.
Four out of five teams brought home medals over the two weekends of play. The U9, U11 and U13 teams played July 21 to 23. The U15 and U19 played July 28 to 30. It was an extremely exciting provincials for all the teams — hard-fought battles, disappointing losses, highlight goals, outstanding goaltending, sudden-death overtime games, exhilarating wins. If you were a fan watching, it had it all.
U9 BMO Nesbitt Burns Orillia Lady Kings
The Orillia Lady Kings U9 team won the bronze medal in the A division. The girls worked so hard for the medal and came out with the win. The game was quite the nail biter. They played the best game of lacrosse they ever had and showed coach Emma that they really wanted the win. Kayla Beard played in net and was an amazing goalie and helped contribute to the win. Each and every one of the girls showed what teamwork was all about.
The team includes: Kayla Beard, Addison Atkinson, Isabella Beaudin, Zoey Beaudin, Harper MacDonell, Isabelle Oulette-Darling, Baylee Barker, Norah Whelan, Norah Belviso and Anna Hunter. The bench staff was Emma Taylor (head coach), Maddison McLaughlin (assistant coach) and Luke Hunter (trainer).
U11 Sweet Oven Orillia Lady Kings
Over the provincials weekend the Orillia U11 Lady Kings travelled to Brampton. They entered the weekend ranked third in the B division. However, the way they played did not represent that.
Coach Kayleigh, coach Avery Paek, and their trainer, Kieran, were all extremely proud and thrilled for the girls as they entered their first game. They played Burlington and after the first quarter coaches knew it was going to be a close game. Every single one of the girls worked extremely hard with phenomenal plays from Avery Saunders, Vivian Laine and Violet Whelan keeping the game tied at almost all points.
As the team got down to the last 30 seconds of play, Chloe Crittenden made an amazing catch and scored the game-winning goal. As the girls jumped up and down and ran onto the field filled with excitement, the coaches knew it was going to be a good weekend.
As they moved forward the Lady Kings took down Oshawa and Kitchener-Waterloo to move on to the gold-medal game. A complete team effort brought the girls something that at the start of the year the coaches struggled to imagine. Captains Rebekah Lacroix, Isla Quinn and Vivian Laine really showed up and supported their team through it all. Kylie Homan led the team for goals and was a key part of the Lady Kings offence.
As Orillia faced Burlington again for the gold, they came prepared. The game started off slow but by the end Orillia held a solid six-goal lead. What was once an 11-10 showing, the second time around the girls won 13-7. Every girl on the team improved through the season and this became the most prominent at the end.
The U11 Lady Kings walked away with the U11 B championship trophy and huge smiles on their faces. The coaches, Kayleigh Aitken, Avery Paek, and staff are extremely proud of these girls and cannot stress enough how much improvement they saw throughout the season.
U13 Orillia Sports Medicine Orillia Lady Kings
The Orillia Lady Kings U13 team competed in B division of the provincials and finished the weekend with a record of 3-1-0. In pool play the team faced Burlington Blaze and Kawartha, coming out on top with scores of 6-4 and 5-3 respectively. These two wins placed the Lady Kings first in their pool and gave them automatic placement in the semifinal game, where they met the Newmarket Redbirds. The Lady Kings started off strong but just couldn’t keep up with the Redbirds and fell short by a score of 7-4.
This was not the end for the Lady Kings, though. They went on to play in the bronze-medal game. After losing the previous day the Lady Kings were determined to bring home that bronze medal and that’s exactly what they did. The team outscored the Owen Sound North Stars 4-2 for the win. Goal scorers for the weekend were Olive Bomberry (six), Molly Bergeron (five), Ryleigh McGuire (two), Elyse Faulkner (two), Kaelyn Drennan (one), Kaydence Thompson (one), Charlotte Cronshaw (one) and Peyton Hoyt (one).
Eiley Hayes had a strong weekend on defence for the team while Kyah Thompson once again made some key saves throughout the weekend to ensure the team brought home some hardware. Zoey Gauthier, Mara McKinney and Langley Duffy-Wilkinson all contributed to the team’s success for the weekend. Coaches were Troy Thompson and Emilee Thompson.
U15 Dan Parnell Royal LePage Orillia Lady Kings
Last weekend the Orillia Lady Kings competed in the Ontario Women’s Lacrosse provincial championship in Oakville.
Finishing the regular season sixth in the A division, the Orillia U15s had a huge underdog task.
Their first game was against the Halton Hills Bulldogs. At the final buzzer it was a 8-8 draw.
In the next game in the pool, Orillia had to deal with an intense Toronto Beaches team. Orillia battled hard but came out of the game with a 9-6 loss.
In the quarter-final game, Orillia had to deal with Kitchener-Waterloo, a strong team. Orillia trailed 4-0 in the start of the second quarter. With hard work Orillia fought and crept up with three goals. With one minute left in the fourth quarter Orillia scored to tie the game. After two hard-fought overtimes Emersyn McLaughlin scored to win the sudden-death overtime to defeat Kitchener-Waterloo.
In the semifinal game the U15s faced a strong Oshawa squad, the eventual goal-medal champions, and lost 15-5.
In the bronze-medal game the Orillia squad again faced the Toronto Beaches. In a very tight game and fought hard to the end, Orillia came out with a 9-6 loss, finishing fourth at provincials. Coaches Amelia Obee and Doug Noganosh were extremely proud of these young women.
U19 Millwood Logistics Orillia Lady Kings
The U19 girls went to Oakville at Shell Park for their final games of the season at provincials. The U19s went into the weekend in fourth place in the A division.
On Friday afternoon they started off by playing Oshawa. They played hard and came out with a win, 9-7. They then played against Hamilton and won 7-5.
Saturday was delayed due to the rain, so the girls had to wait until Sunday morning to play.
On Sunday morning they went into the semifinals and played against Hamilton again. The Orillia Lady Kings and Hamilton went toe to toe going into overtime/sudden death. Orillia came out ahead, winning 9-8.
Orillia then went into the gold-medal game against St. Catharines. The girls played hard, but unfortunately lost 12-8, ending the season as silver-medal champions.
The girls all participated as a team and ended their season on a high.
Many thanks to the dedicated coaches: Jeremy Knee, Emma Torkoff, Rich Rolston and Doug Noganosh.
We are very proud of all these athletes, the commitment and effort they put in all weekend. Orillia Lady Kings also want to thank all the sponsors for their generosity and support and making it possible for these girls to play all season. We also want to thank all the parents and fans that came to cheer the teams on. It was very exciting lacrosse with two teams winning in overtime.
We can’t wait for the 2024 season to begin.
