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L.V. Rogers girls make noise in Oliver

It's a festival, not a competition but the L.V. Rogers girls field hockey team still made a huge statement in Oliver over the weekend.
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It's supposed to be a festival, not a competitive tournament, but the L.V. Rogers girls field hockey team still made a huge statement in Oliver over the weekend.

The team won all four of its games — and didn't surrender a single goal.

In the first game, LVR beat South Kamloops 1-0 on an unassisted Allie Zondervan marker. The victory was made all the sweeter because South Kamloops usually beats them, co-coach Val Gibson said.

LVR then beat the host team by the same score. Chiara Chirico scored a one-timer in the last minute on a pass from Zondervan.

Game three saw LVR beat Clayton Heights from Surrey 4-0. Lauren Walgren opened the scoring on an unassisted goal.

"Lauren is usually our strongest defender," Gibson said. "She never gets to play forward. Until now."

Sarah Wade made it 2-0 on a pass from Chirico, who then scored her own goal assisted by Lauren Walgren and Jena Wheeldon.

Zondervan, a midfielder, rounded out the scoring on a pass from Wheeldon.

Goalkeeper Tara Yowek was perfect in all three games.

The final game was another 4-0 romp, this time over Agassiz. Walgren began the scoring assisted by Zondervan. Then Chirico added her third goal of the weekend from Naomi Perkins. Zonervan made it 3-0 from Wheeldon and Walgren, and then Emma Bohri closed the game with a goal on a pass from Perkins.

The last game was delayed due to a thunderstorm. In the second half, defender Anna Goeppner took over in goal allowing Yowek to play out.

"Tara had some great shots on goal [while] Anna [faced] no shots," Gibson said. "Naomi Perkins dangled all of the other players but could not put it in the net. Emma Gregorich was amazing in the middle defence."

Rookies McKenna Bennett, Noa Butterfield, Marley Reynold and Taylor Zimmer all added to the team's success, Gibson said.

"They were intimidated at first to have to play against Grade 12s, but by the end of the weekend they felt at ease and were playing very valuable minutes." Rookie Emma Wheeldon was away at an ice hockey tournament.

LVR took 17 players in Grades 9, 10, and 11 to the festival — there are no grads on the team this year. Gibson says she was thrilled to see great team play and scoring ability from such a young team and their goal is to improve on their tenth place provincial placing last year.

"I think we have the athletes to do it," she said.

Next weekend the team plays in a tournament in Castlegar.