Open A Snipers take silver at Kitchener tournament

The Open A 18+ St. Marys Snipers left the Kitchener Golden Ring Tournament Jan. 30 to Feb. 1 as the silver medalists. Pictured in the front row, from left to right, are Josie Butler-Watson, Ashtyn Wedow, Tess Erb, Brenna Atthill, Laynee Partridge, Nicki VanBakel, Rachel VanBakel and Melissa Mann. In the middle row, from left, are Shannon Hill, Emily Sage, Laura Van De Walle, Allison Sage, Rachelle Keys, Avery Wedow, Kaylee Tobias, Natalie Reay and Rachel Mann. In the back row, from left, are volunteer bench staff Jim Harrison and Steve Reay.

By Spencer Seymour

The Open A 18+ St. Marys Snipers picked up the silver medals at the Kitchener Golden Ring Tournament Jan. 30 to Feb 1.

Player-coach Allison Sage told the Independent the team was able to unite for their final tournament of the season in a big way.

“It was nice to see that in our last tournament, we were all able to come together and really piece together a few good games,” Sage said. “We’ve struggled to have enough players usually on the first day of the tournament, but the girls really showed up this time, and we were able to go into Saturday with two wins under our belt. It’s a really great group and a real fun weekend of Ringette.”

The Snipers put together a perfect 4-0 record in the round robin, including a win over the eventual gold-medalist Cambridge Turbos.

Their strong round-robin play set St. Marys up for a semi-final clash against the Waterloo Wildfire. The Snipers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in under nine minutes, with goals by Nicki Van Bakel, Josie Butler-Watson and Natalie Reay. Waterloo clawed the game back to within a single goal, but the Snipers pulled back ahead in the third with goals by Sage, Tess Erb and Rachelle Keys to win 6-2.

Sage noted the game semi-final came with an added challenge of facing a team new to them.

“We hadn’t played this team before, so everyone was pretty excited to play against a different team because sometimes opponents can get repetitive,” said Sage. “We started off hot and got a few good, quick goals. There was a period of maybe six or seven minutes where we let up a little bit, but we were able to get back on our feet in the second period and finish strong to win the game.”

Though the Snipers fell in the finals to Cambridge, Sage said the tournament was a good exclamation point of their season.

“We’re really proud of the accomplishment. It was a close final game and a fun competition to be a part of. We’re really proud of the season that we put together, with the very few practices and only participating in tournaments. We really gelled this season. I think we finally settled into our lines and everyone was really able to put some plays together and feel confident of where each other would be. It was really a group effort.”