On Saturday, February 24th, 2024, EPSA held their 5th Annual Women’s Invitational Indoor Tournament at Far Post in Limerick, PA. The United German Hungarian Women’s team was happy to participate again and has participated with either one or two teams since EPSA started this event. We took one team of nine players to compete on Saturday. It consisted of both seasoned and new players both to the team and the tournament.
Invitational Roster:
Courtney Shaw – Goalkeeper
Erin Donnelly
Kacey Cerankowski
Allison Barker
Corinne Renninger
Nicole Palmer
Lily Melink
Lizzie Eisele
Kara Waskiewicz
Four of these players- Courtney Shaw, Erin Donnelly, Kacey Cerankowski, and Allison Barker, have been on the team since around 2016; so, they were no stranger to the rules and layout of the tournament. Our other five players- Corinne Renninger, Nicole Palmer, Lily Melink, Lizzie Eisele, and Kara Waskiewicz have joined the squad within the past two years but have been huge assets on the field in all games they have played. We were confident with this squad taking the field on Saturday.
In round robin play, we had two matchups that we were unfamiliar with and were excited for. As anyone knows, the main purpose and excitement of tournaments, especially at an adult amateur level, is being able to go against teams out of league. We were matched up against the Philadelphia Flames – Red, Manchester United and the Last Airbenders.
Our first game against Flames – Red, which is a United Soccer League (USLPA) team, resulted in a tie within the last 10 seconds of the game. Being up throughout the last ten minutes of the game and losing it within the last couple seconds of the game definitely put some fuel to the fire for game number two. Our second game was an equal matchup against the Last Airbenders. While the team and spectators believed we won this game, the lack of attention to detail and a side net not being secure for one “goal”, cost this game to end in a tie as well. Our third game, the team had to win to move out of group play to semi-finals. Manchester United came out to win and unfortunately all of our shots on goal throughout this game were stopped.
While the team did not make it out of group play this time around in the tournament, it is always a good night of soccer and a fun night to get the team together prior to the start of our upcoming Spring season. Coach Steve Paul and I were proud of the team and the way they played throughout the evening; they did a great job and plenty of goals were scored. Courtney Shaw deserves a shout out as well, as she did a stellar job in net, being a goalkeeper indoor is no joke. We thank EPSA for another well-run event and are looking forward to getting the Spring Season!
Michelle McFadden
