NEWS RELEASE
ORILLIA LADY KINGS FIELD LACROSSE
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The BMO Nesbitt Burns/Orillia Lady Kings senior lacrosse club enters the 2019 season as reigning provincial champions and got off to a great start as the team traveled to the University of Guelph campus to open the season.
Orillia would face the Oshawa Lady Blue Knights in their opening match and the offence appeared to be on cue as the Orillia squad would get out to an impressive 10-0 lead to close out the first half of play. The second half would continue well for the Lady Kings as they would finish the match with an impressive 16-2 victory over the long-time rivals from Oshawa.
Pacing the victors would be Queen’s University junior Kiah Shanks as she would register a four-goal performance. Camille Vibert, Emily Arkell and Kyra Meredith scored a pair each while single markers would come from the sticks of Morgan Vickers, Annie Lloyd, Kendall Boyd (after a 10-year absence of playing competitively), Jordan Kummer and Kelsi Pritchard.
In game two, Six Nations, who is always a tough matchup, would give the Lady Kings a good test and if not for the heroics of emergency call-up goaltender Syd Watson, a Guelph resident, the game may have had a different outcome as Orillia Lady Kings registered a close 9-5 victory.
Orillia would go into the half with a narrow 5-3 lead on a hattrick effort by Shanks and a pair from Vibert. Six Nations would open the second half, getting even with the senior ladies and that is when goaltender Watson would take over as she would stymie any offensive thrust the Six Nations offence would put her way making several key saves and then the Lady Kings would score on opportunities that came their way to finish off with a hard-fought victory. Camryn Kelly (2), Annie Lloyd and Vibert with her third of the game rounded out the second-half scoring.
Orillia manager John Pritchard and the players acknowledge with the senior loop expanding to a 13-team league that most, if not all the teams they will face this season will be out to knock the Lady Kings down a peg or two throughout league play and will travel to Kitchener-Waterloo next Sunday to face off again against long-time rivals Toronto Beaches and Orangeville Northmen, whom Orillia defeated last year in the finals.
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