MARQUETTE -- FC Marquette Wave “98” Brings home the Hardware from the Dome! Last weekend the FC Marquette 98 U13 Girls Soccer team competed in the 16th annual Superior Dome Soccer Tournament right here in Marquette. This tournament is felt by most to be the Kickoff to the Spring Summer Soccer season.

For many of the teams that participate this is the first time they have had a chance to actually play since last fall, while some of the Teams from more Metropolitan areas have been playing all winter indoors. FC Marquette Wave 98 was looking for a good showing to start off their 2011 season which will see them participating in Nationally ranked tournaments including the USA CUP in Blaine Minnesota.

Coach Jeff Collins said before the tournament started that he had a good group of Ladies and he was looking forward to seeing them improve as the year went along. FCM Wave kicked off their 2011 Spring Soccer season at 8:30 pm 4/8/11 against DePere Select from Brillion WI.

This is a team that they had faced in multiple tournaments last summer so they knew they were in for a solid match. It turned out to be a Scoreless 0-0 tie after regulation with FCM outshooting DePere 32-3. FCM Wave 98 Defense was lead by a core group of Peirsan Kimmes, Jessica Langsford, Hanna Johnson, Zyna Zyble, Victoria Anderson, Bridget Engstrom and Hannah Riesland who split time between Defense and Midfield.

Most minutes of play were controlled by FCM Wave 98 in the DePere end as the shot total shows, FCM could just not get the ball to the back of the net. FCM Wave 98 met the Traverse City Northstar 98 team at 4pm on Saturday for their second game of the tournament. FC Marquette Wave 98 was starting to shake off the rust from a long winter and it was easy to see on the field.

There were periods of time where it was easy to see how they Dominated last year, this team was returning all of last seasons mates and added a couple of new faces. Mikayla Blight and Casey Durand connected twice during the game with Mikayla getting the Goals and Casey getting the Assists in both situations. Morgan Collins and Madison Rieboldt also had some good looks but could not get it past the Keeper.

Game 2 finished with FCM Wave 98 getting the 2-0 victory and looking forward to Sundays game to see if they could win this thing. Coaches Jeff Collins, Wendy Blight, And Nancy Graves knew that the team was going to have to put forth a solid team effort and score max points on Sunday to lock up tournament victory. 10 am Sunday Morning saw FC Marquette Wave 98 getting ready to face Plutchak Fab from Menominee Michigan.

FCM Wave 98 was playing first and there challenger for the Overall U13 Division the DePere Select U13 would be following with the second game. This meant that FCM Wave 98 needed to score max points because they would not know the outcome of the DePere Game until after they were done playing. FCM Wave showed early and often what they were made of in their third game. The Midfielders (Sydney Higgins, Amber Huebner, Taylor Swajanen, Hailey Peterson, and Hannah Riesland) really controlled the flow of the game and the Defense shut down any scoring threat, Menominee did not even have a registered shot on goal for the game.

FCM Wave 98 put on a display of ball control and scoring prowess, knowing that they needed everything they could get to lock up the tournament championship as this was a point’s tournament and there would not be a championship game. Scoring was lead by Casey Durand (3) Amber Huebner (2 from way outside the 18) and Mikayla Blight (1). Helpers went to Mikayla Blight (3), Jessica Langsford (1) and Taylor Swajanen (1). Molly Gaudreau played all three games in goal and recorded a shutout in all three. Not a bad start to her season. A few of her stops were highlight reel quality. 3 games 3 shutout 3 extra points for the team.

Those three extra points were what it took for the FC Marquette Wave U13 Girls Soccer Team to secure the overall title in the 16th Annual Superior Dome Soccer Tournament. Coach Jeff said after the game that as the weekend went along you could really see them shaking off the winter rust and coming together as a team.

From the way things look we can hope to hear a lot more about the FC Marquette Wave 98 U13 Girls Soccer team as the season rolls along…. “BRING IT!”