VANCOUVER, BC – Towards the end of a strong season in the Metro Women’s Soccer League (MWSL), Vancouver Whitecaps Girls Elite participated in the 2014 Player Showcase in Las Vegas held on March 21-23.
The Player Showcase in Las Vegas is an annual event which is held in conjunction with USYS National League. The event hosts two tournaments for both girls and boys. There are over 500 teams that participate with over 400 college coaches and scouts in attendance.
The tournament provides an unparalleled opportunity for players to showcase their talent and college coaches to evaluate and scout players. A great deal of care and research is made in scheduling the best matchups to ensure the highest exposure for each individual player.
The ‘Caps Girls Elite squad finished the weekend with a 3W-1L-0D record outscoring their opponents 17-2 in four games finishing as the highest scoring team for the U-18 bracket.
MARCH 21
- 6-1 win over South Valley Strikers. Hat-trick for Monika Levarsky and one goal each for Katelyn Erharden, Margaret Hadley, and Monpreet Heer.
- 1-0 Loss to Real So Cal
MARCH 22
- 6-0 win over Crown United SC. Two goals from Monika Levarsky and Katelyn Erharden. One goal each from Hannah Carrothers and Ashley Burgess
MARCH 21
- 5-0 win over Riverside MGFM Impact. Hat-trick fro Monpreet Heer. One goal from Kristin Fairbairn and Nicole Turney.
A majority of the squad will be remain intact as 10 of the 16 players are eligible for the U-18 team next year. Follow the teams twitter for updates at @WFCElite.
“The players performed at a very consistent and professional manner in all the matches,” Girls Elite head coach Jesse Symons told whitecapsfc.com. “With only 16 players at the event and four shortened matches in three days, they showed a tremendous mind set to stay at such a high standard game after game. Full credit to the players. The group played with some great attacking flare and were able to keep the ball extremely well throughout each match.”
“The objective at the event was to create dialogue with players and college coaches and the individual performances definitely will spur on some conversations in the next few weeks I'm sure.”
The squad was joined by the following three guest players selected from the EA BC Soccer Premier League (BCSPL), Ashley Burgess and Olivia Sheppard from Coastal FC, and Kristin Fairbairn from Surrey United. The full Whitecaps FC girls roster can be found on whitecapsfc.com.
Two players that were not able to join the team were Girls Elite defenders Simmrin Dhaliwal and Rachel Jones who have been called up to the U-17 Canadian Women’s National team to compete in the 2014 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup. The Canadians are currently undefeated drawing even 2-2 against Germany,1-1 against Korea DRP and 2-1 against Ghana to advance to the quarterfinals. Recaps of the games are posted on whitecapsfc.com.
“Simmrin and Rachel have been tremendous in the Girls Elite program over the past year and a half training and playing with players one and two years older,” Symons told whitecapsfc.com “It's a fantastic and well deserved feat and, as a program, we are very excited to see them come back motivated to continue to progress to become even stronger individuals on and off the field.”
The ‘Caps Girls Elite team currently hold an impressive record of 14W-1L-1D securing the top spot for the 2013-14 MSWL regular season. The squads have 24 more goals then the next team while allowing the fewest goals, with 8 shutouts. The squad only has two more games left in the regular season, both against Surrey United, which are to be held in early April.
The squad now looks forward to the Whitecaps FC Showcase on April 18-20 to be held at Newton Athletic Park, Surrey BC.
