Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Plenty of shots for U14 girls

In Boise hockey games

---

This weekend in Boise, the Sun Valley Junior Hockey U14 girls’ team finally got a chance to face off against someone their own size.

With a season of losses against Boise's U19 team fresh in their memory, the Sun Valley girls had a series of definitive wins Saturday and Sunday against teams comprised of players from 9-13 years old

Sun Valley hockey players, from left, Devan Ellison-Anan, Ashley Hesteness and Hailey Zanes. Courtesy photo

Sun Valley went three-for-three in Boise, winning once on Saturday 14-1, and twice on Sunday, 13-0 and 9-1.

In Saturday's game, the team mustered 50 shots on net. They put another 61 shots on goal on Sunday for a three-game total of 111 shots. Defensively, Sun Valley allowed just 11 shots over the same three-game span.

According to coach Nicole Perkins, "It was very exciting for us to dominate a hockey game. For the first time ever, (the girls) had a lot of time and space in the offensive zone."

Perkins added that facing same-age opposition, the Sun Valley girls finally had an opportunity to learn new skills such as delays, passing and deflections. "It was a weekend to work on pure hockey skills," Perkins continued, "and to focus on positional play and teamwork, not just scoring."

Highlights included three-goal hat tricks by Ashley Hesteness (5 goals/3 assists) and Leigh Ann VanQuill (5/1) and the first goals in a game by Devan Ellison-Anan (2/2), Hailey Zanes (2/3), Katie Pruett (5/4) and Daniela Stokes (4/3).

Also playing were Hannah Carr (5/4), Aimee Evans (0/1), Kelly Hennessy and Kat Pettingill. Coaches were Perkins and Jennifer Copeland-Embree.

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.