On Jan. 19 through the 21st, Melissa soccer teams faced some serious competitions during the tournament. The Lady Cards started out good in the tournament and first went against Pampa Thursday and won 6-0. Friday morning, they went against Little Elm. They had rough game, and ended up losing to 1-0. Later on the day, they had another game against Lebanon Trails and they came back strong and won 5-2. Saturday, last day of the tournament, the Lady Cards went against Midlothian Heritage and started their day out strong by winning 4-1.   Later on the day, the Lady Cards went against Little Elm, again, for their final game and won 1-0.

The Lady Cardinals couldn’t gone this far without their encouraging coach, Coach Avila. After their second game, Coach Avila explained to me how he encouraged the girls after their lost, ”When I spoke to them my focus was already on the next game. We needed to get points out of that one, we didn’t, so now we have to take care of business in the last game. I knew they were frustrated, but we needed to get past it as quickly as possible. I told them if they wanted a chance to redeem themselves they needed to win, and they would get it in the finals. We were optimistic that we could do just that.”

In the end the girls were successful in the tournament. Junior, Gillian Stopinski said, “While it was a lot of work and very rigorous, it was very rewarding to be back on top after losing in the finals last year.” Coach Avila couldn’t be more proud of them, “We were emotionally and physically drained, but they were so excited to hold the trophy. I looked at that game as a way for our team to prove something to themselves, and they did a great job. I couldn’t have been more proud to win that game the way we did. What was better, those girls played their hearts out for each other, and that was their biggest reward.” Congratulations Lady Cards, you all truly deserve this.