Vardar U-17 Girls 4-peat Michigan State Cup
Championship
The Vardar U-17 girls soccer
team recently achieved a rare feat – its fourth consecutive
Michigan State Cup championship. Vardar defeated the
Michigan Hawks 2 – 1 in an exciting and hard fought
contest. Being crowned state champions has earned Vardar
the right to compete in the Region II championships
scheduled for June 2005 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The
Region II tournament invites 14 state champions from the
Midwest region to compete for the right to go on and compete
for the national championship. The team is now ranked 8th
in the Nation by National Soccer Rankings.
“Last season, we made it to the finals of
the Region II tournament and we were defeated by an
excellent team from Chicago that went on to win the national
championship,” said Vardar coach Demir Muftari. “Our team
not only wanted to repeat as state champions this year, but
we wanted to earn the right to go back to the Region II
tournament and prove ourselves as the best team in the
Midwest region.”
The match against the Hawks was
everything that one would hope to see in a state finals
game. Although Vardar created a number of excellent scoring
opportunities, the Hawks were the first team to find the
net. With about ten minutes to go in regulation, the
perennial state champion Vardar team found itself in
unfamiliar territory – down by a goal with not much time to
play.
“When the breaks did not go our way, the
girls showed the confidence and composure of true
champions,” commented Muftari. “They didn’t panic. They
turned the intensity up another notch and got it done.
After the Hawks scored, you could see the resolve in our
girls and the momentum completely shifted to our side.”
With only a few minutes left in regulation, forward Lauren
Hill evened the match that would eventually be decided a few
minutes into overtime on a goal by forward Emily Kiely.
Vardar will compete in the Raleigh
Showcase tournament in Raleigh, North Carolina at the end of
October and at the Disney Showcase tournament in Orlando,
Florida at the end of December. These tournaments are
designed to give the players an opportunity to compete in
front of coaches from the top college soccer programs in the
country. “Not only are these tournaments great competition
against the best teams in the country, but they are a great
recruiting opportunity for our players and college
coaches.” In fact, every high school senior on the Vardar
team has already committed to a college soccer program
including the University of Detroit, Michigan State
University, Oakland University and the University of
Michigan.
The Vardar Soccer Club attracts players
from the greater metropolitan Detroit area. Members of the
championship team include Jessica Boyle of Lake Orion, Erica
Gordy of Bloomfield Hills, Michelle Grambeau of Ann Arbor,
Lauren Hill of Northville, Carly Keyes of Bloomfield Hills,
Emily Kiely of Windsor, Ontario, Lauren King of Ann Arbor,
Trina Kochanski of Royal Oak, Gina Leone of St. Clair
Shores, Danielle Petri of Rochester Hills, Michele Roffey of
West Bloomfield, Susan Szafir of Rochester Hills, Lauren
Sinacola of Rochester Hills, Nicki Uhazi of Rochester Hills,
Alyse Venticinque of Shelby Township, and Christie Zelnik of
Ann Arbor.
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