Surrounded by natures beauty at its best, the Sierra Lax guys put on a great U19 tournament again in Lake Tahoe. The weather was fantastic, and the lacrosse skill was definitely up from last years tournament, as were the # of teams (8 in 2010, 14 in 2011).

The U17 White team was mostly reassembled from the Vail Tournament team, with a couple additions to fill a few vacant spots. Notably, Conor Patrick, (Attack-Woodside High) helped boost our offense, and turned out to be the only real U19 player on a team of U17 players. So we were on the young side in a U19 tourney again, but the team wasn’t fazed or intimidated at all. The guys started off with a nice victory Saturday morning over Ryquin, and completed day 1 of the tourney 2-0 with an afternoon victory over the Reno Envy. The highlight of day 1 was 25 goals scored (12 & 13 respectively) very solid output for short, running time games, and a good sign that our offense was clicking early.

The Day 1 performance clinched the #1 seed in our bracket, and launched us right into the Tournament semifinals. Day 2 began with one of those games you live for if you play/watch lacrosse. A matchup with the Golden Gate U19 team, a number of the players on both teams were from the same schools and /or knew each other. Golden Gate, led by some dominant middie play, pulled out to a 3-0 lead, and things looked grim early. But the NorCal team stayed focused, kept trusting the offense and each other. We had a number of assisted goals, and by the 5 minute mark left in the game, we not only climbed back in the game but we had grabbed a 10-7 lead. Celebration had to be delayed however, as Golden Gate put three in, including the tying goal with under a minute left, to force a sudden death overtime.

In the overtime, Golden Gate dominated the time of possession, and barraged our side with shots. But a bit of luck (lot of close shots were off cage) and a bit of skill (Pierce Philp with some fantastic saves in the OT period) we managed to keep them out of the net and give our offense a chance. The offense didn’t waste the opportunity. On our second possession, the offense was disciplined and stayed spread out. Kotaro Kihira took advantage of his speed and some room to work behind the cage, and scored on a beautiful drive, dodge and shoot to clinch the 11-10 victory and spot in the Championship game. The team stormed the field and mobbed Pierce and Kotaro, and it was definitely a highlight all will remember.

Our reward for the Golden Gate victory was a game vs. the Colorado Wild. A U19 team filled with almost all rising college freshmen, with 5 D-1 recruits on the team. Including Nick Ossello, Tournament MVP heading to Notre Dame in the fall, who dominated the faceoffs all game. I was proud of the fact that our guys played this game hard to the very end, and that even with our 13-5 loss, we gave the Wild their toughest game all tournament.

Coach Harman and Coach Mengis want to thank the guys for their effort and accomplishment in the Tahoe Tourney. This tourney was a very positive way to end the summer for the team, and we are looking forward to seeing these guys continue playing together in the near future!