Ringette players will have a blast in Vernon this weekend.
Greater Vernon Ringette hosts the Okanagan Autumn Blast Tournament at Kal Tire Place (both arenas).
A total of 17 teams, including four from Greater Vernon, will take part in four divisions.
“We have two Fun teams, two U10 teams, two2 U12 teams, one U14 community team and one U14 North Zone team which is mainly Vernon girls with one Shuswap girl on the team, two U16 teams, one U19 team and one Open team,” said Vernon president Rosemary Manton of the teams in the local association.
“Our teams participating in the Autumn Blast are the U14 House, U14 Zone (Zone 5) U16A and U19A.”
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Vernon U14 house team is in a four-team group with Fraser Valley, Delta and West Kelowna. Vernon will play Fraser Valley Friday at 9 a.m. (KTP North), Delta at 6:45 p.m. (KTPN) and West Kelowna Saturday at 9:15 a.m. at Kal Tire Place. Playoffs in the group start at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Vernon U16A is in a five-team pool with Delta, Shuswap, Kelowna and South Calgary. Vernon meets Kelowna Friday at 8 a.m. (KTP) and South Calgary at 2:15 p.m. (KTP). On Saturday, the locals will play Delta at 12:45 p.m. at KTPN. Playoffs start Sunday morning at 9:15 at KTPN.
Vernon U19A will take on Kelowna, St. Albert, Alta. and Prince George/Quesnel in its pool, starting with a match against St. Albert Friday at 9:15 a.m. at KTP. Vernon takes on PG/Quesnel Friday at 3:30 p.m. and closes out the preliminary round Saturday at 11:30 a.m. against Kelowna U18+ at KTPN. Playoffs start Saturday at 3:15 p.m. at KTPN.
The Vernon U14 Zone squad will face Zone 2 Richmond/Delta/Vancouver, Zone 6 Kelowna/Westside and Zone 8 Prince George/Quesnel in its preliminary round. Vernon meets Kelowna/Westside Friday at 10:15 a.m. at KTPN, followed by a match at 5:45 p.m. at KTPN against Prince George/Quesnel. The round-robin wraps with Vernon playing Richmond/Delta/Vancouver Saturday morning at 10:30 at KTP. Playoffs start at KTP at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
A full game schedule for all divisions can be found here.
The U16A Vernon Venom is 3-0 for the start of their season. They blanked Kelowna U16A 5-0 in their season opener. Makenna Jackson and Aimee Skinner each had a pair with Molly Dyck, Caryss Hill and Chayse Krause chipping in singles. The Venom picked up two wins this past weekend is a pair of games in West Kelowna. They beat Shuswap U16A 4-1 and then blanked West Kelowna U19B 10-0.
Jackson Led the offence with five goals (+2A), while linemate HiIllary Quiring scored tw0 (+4) and defensive threat Skinner sniped three (+1). Venom scoring also came from Hill (2+3), Dyck, and Jasmine Horton. Sophia Bilodeau had three helpers while Kennedy Jackson and Millie Johnson played strong defence in front of Jordan Tung and Tessa Dyck, who shared netminding duties. Dyck earned two shut outs in her debut games with the Venom.
The U14 zone squad prepped for the tourney by falling 11-4 to the South Zone U14 team. Scoring for the North were Ally Hobenshield and Ava Hawrys with two goals each and assists were supplied by Emily Loose and Kiera Horton.
Tournament play wraps Sunday with two championship games at KTP (U16) at 12:15 p.m. and KTPN (U14 House) at 12:30 p.m.
The Vernon U12s will host the B.C. championships Feb. 28, Feb. 29 and March 1.
@VernonNews
roger@vernonmorningstar.com
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