As an indication of the strength of Island high school girls鈥� soccer, six of the eight incoming freshman in the fall for the University of Victoria Vikes in U Sports are homegrown.
They include Brea Christie of Royal Bay, Aislinn Shinomura from Reynolds, Dari Cote and Eyla Payne, both from Ecole Victor Brodeur, Megan Reist-Millward of Mount Douglas and Trinity Kettyls from Lambrick Park.
Several of them were on display Tuesday in the Lower Island Ryan Cup quarter-finals, including Christie in the battle of the Bays. Host Oak Bay, with a pedigree dating to 1929 despite a new building, outlasted two-year-old newbie school Royal Bay 2-0 despite a solid effort by Christie.
Several of the high school stars know each other from the Vancouver Island Wave rep program away from school.
鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of fun because a Wave teammate may give you a push out there in school play, and you turn and smile,鈥� said Christie.
鈥淵ou see their skill sets differently in school league opposition than you do as a Wave teammate.鈥�
As for her impending U Sports career, Christie is looking forward to the Vikes.
鈥淚鈥檓 excited to be playing for my hometown university where I will have the support of my family and friends,鈥� said Christie.
鈥淚鈥檓 fortunate because not many university athletes have that opportunity.鈥�
Although her double-A No. 3 Ravens lost to the triple-A No. 2 Breakers on Tuesday, Christie is proud of having blazed a trail the past two years as among the first Ravens athletes to play for the new school.
鈥淓verything we did started a new tradition,鈥� she said.
The Breakers, meanwhile, are a provincial power and showed it on goals by Maddy Trimmer and Kara Butler.
鈥淲e play calm until we find gaps and break the opposition down,鈥� said Trimmer, one of the Grade 11s on a young Oak Bay squad.
Emiko Hourston is another of those Grade 11 Breakers. 鈥淲e work for each other and we play for each other,鈥� she said.
In Tuesday鈥檚 other Ryan Cup quarter-finals, Shinomura and the triple-A top-rated Reynolds Roadrunners blanked the double-A fourth-seed Lambrick Park Lions 1-0; the double-A second-seed St. Michaels University School Blue Jags edged the triple-A No. 3 Stelly鈥檚 Stingers 1-0; and the double-A top-ranked Glenlyon Norfolk Gryphons out-ran triple-A No. 4 Spectrum 3-2.
The semifinals are Thursday with Reynolds and SMUS meeting at Braefoot Park and Oak Bay visiting GNS, both at 3:15. The 2017 Ryan Cup final is next Tuesday at UVic.
