Valpo Ravens Win 2017 Northwest Indiana Soccer League (NWISL) Championship Tournament

Valpo Ravens Win 2017 Northwest Indiana Soccer League (NWISL) Championship Tournament

The Northwest Indiana Soccer League (NWISL) championship tournament was this weekend, and our U14 Girls Valpo Ravens from the Valparaiso Soccer Club were victorious! Our season started wondering if we were even going to have enough players to field a team. We were able to find 12 girls to put together as the Valpo Ravens.

Throughout the season, with other commitments such as track, choir, band, and other family obligations, we were hard pressed to even have half the team able to make practice. Even though this team had never played together before, and never practiced as a full team, we started winning game after game during the regular season. Even though we were playing in the U14 division, we only had 5 of the 12 girls that were 14 years old. The rest ranged in age from 12 - 13. But that did not stop us from gelling together as a team.

Finishing the regular season in the bronze division with a record of 5-1-1, we entered the championship tournament last weekend. Playing silver division teams, we won our first two games and advanced to the championship game where we faced yet another silver division team. In the championship game, we played a very skilled Highland team.

All season long, as well as this game, we played without any subs. In fact, most of the season, we played short-handed which makes our story that much more impressive. Halfway through the second half, one of our players felt sick and couldn't go on, leaving us 2 players short of a fully fielded team which Highland had. With one minute left in regulation time, our Cinderella season came to a crescendo as we scored the game winning goal, breaking the game-long tie of 0-0! Making us the U14 NWISL Girls Champs!