FUN3 Snipers (Hibbert) take silver at St. Marys tournament

The Cherry Hill Carpentry-McKinley Hatchery FUN3 St. Marys Snipers took the silver medal at the Snipers’ Ringette Tournament in St. Marys Dec. 12-14. Pictured in the front row, from left to right, are Adriana Marcaccio, Mila Vanderpol, Lauren Garniss, Charlotte Holliday and Lacey Terpstra. In the back row, from left, are coach Kaisu Vanderpol, Adelia Verbaan, Blake Munro, Avynne Blight, Noelle McKay, Sophia Adcock, Natalie Hibbert, head coach Jamie Hibbert, coach Carly Dundas and Addie Dundas.

By Spencer Seymour

The Cherry Hill Carpentry-McKinley Hatchery FUN3 St. Marys Snipers (Hibbert) earned the silver medal at the Snipers Ringette Tournament Dec. 12-14 in St. Marys.

Head coach Jamie Hibbert called the tournament a “great weekend” for her squad.

“They were very consistent throughout the weekend,” Hibbert told the Independent. “Sometimes at this age, they can be a little unpredictable, but they all played really well for every game. They’ve been doing a great job of things that really started clicking around our last tournament; things like creating open space on the ice and applying lots of pressure when back-checking.”

The Snipers put up two wins in their three round-robin games, including a 9-2 win over Mitchell and an 8-1 victory over London. St. Marys’ only loss in the round-robin came at the hands of Tillsonburg, who St. Marys faced in a rematch in the gold-medal game.

Blake Munro, Adelia Verbaan and Natalie Hibbert scored in the final for the Snipers, but Tillsonburg came away with the 5-3 win to take the top prize.

Despite not winning the gold, Jamie Hibbert was thrilled with the team’s results, and the fact they played stiffer competition in the tournament final.

“This tournament was great for us, not only because we placed second, but also because we played a much harder team than we had up until this point,” said Jamie Hibbert. “Tillsonburg was a really big challenge for us. They are a very strong team and it was great to see the potential our team has and what we need to work on moving forward. The second half of the season will bring a lot more of these challenging teams for us.”

Jamie Hibbert also noted the special nature of playing the tournament on home ice.

“Playing on home ice is always amazing. The amount of fans we had in the crowd cheering our team on was phenomenal. It means so much more for the girls knowing their aunts, uncles, or grandparents are out there watching too. Winning a silver medal with the extra support out there makes a big difference for them.”