Davis World Cup Wrapup

Congratulations to all of our Palo Alto Spring Select (PASS) teams for a job well done this past weekend at the Davis World Cup tournament. We had 9 PASS teams go this year and 4 of them made medal rounds, and another made the quarter finals. The road to play on Monday in this tournament is not easy, especially in divisions with double elimination such as U12 and U14. Playing 6 to 7 games in 3 days is difficult enough without having to deal with the 94+ degree heat we had this weekend. All of the teams, whether they made it to Monday or not, can be proud of their hard work this weekend and for the entire season. 5 Teams Made It Past the Elimination Round  NETRIPPERS G10 Net Rippers finished 2nd. They finished 5th in the White Bracket of 6 teams, but did not let up in the quarter final elimination game against Sunnyvale. The game with Sunnyvale was 0-0 late in the game when the Net Rippers scored a late goal to end 1-0. Their hard work earned them a trip to the semi final round against a fresh PHMSA team who earned a first round bye. The Net Rippers won the game 2-1 to advance into the finals against Davis, where they were eliminated 0-3. SHARKS B10 Sharks finished 4th. The Sharks finished 2nd in pool play even with a rocky start in their first game loss against the eventual champion of the White Bracket of 6 teams. They made up for it with a dominant quarter final win over Concord, but couldn't keep the momentum going in their loss to Sunnyvale in the semi final game only to play Davis in the consolation game. SPARTANS B12 Spartans finished 4th. They had a difficult path to the medal round, a total of 7 games with a division of 16 teams. The Spartans finished 3rd in pool play. The first elimination game was against Davis with a sound 5-2 win, then faced Mountain View in the quarter final elimination game that battled to a 0-0 tie at the end of regulation. Setting up kicks from the mark to determine who advanced. The Sharks won the shootout 4-2 with their keeper blocking 3 of the 5 MV attempts. The win put them in the semi-final game against PHMSA, and an unfortunate 5-1 loss. They matched up against MDSA in the consolation game. Worthy of note, three of the top 4 teams that placed out of 16 teams came from the Spartan's original pool, finishing 1st, 2nd, and 4th. ELITE B14 Elite made the final 8 of 12 teams, but were eliminated in the quarter finals. They finished in the bottom of their pool, but did not get discouraged. They had an exciting first round elimination game against PHMSA. In a very close 2-1 match. In this key elimination game, a PK was called with only seconds remaining in regulation time. The Palo Alto keeper selected the right direction, defended the shot, and before any one could play the ball the game was over and they advanced to the quarter finals. Their quarter final game ended in a 3-0 loss to 2nd place finisher, Visalia. Visalia had earned a bye and was fresh coming in against Elite.  RAPTORS B19 Raptors finished 4th. After finishing first in their pool, this young B19 team headed into their quarter final elimination game against PCSSL arch-rival Millbrae. The game ended 2-2 and went to kicks from the mark to decide the match. Palo Alto made their first two and the Palo Alto keeper blocked Millbrae's first two shots. Millbrae made their 3rd to close the gap to 2-1, Palo Alto missed again just off the pipe, followed by another deflected shot by the Palo Alto keeper. With needing only one more goal to win the game the Palo Alto keeper took and made the 5th shot to advance the Raptors to the Semi final. Down 1-0 in the second half, Palo Alto lost their keeper to injury and was out of the tournament, the final result was a 2-0 loss to Davis who took first place. The consolation game ended in a close 1-0 loss to the other Davis team. The heat of this past weekend and the experiences were an excellent primer as they head south to Riverside, CA for the National Games. Congratulations and Good Luck, David Mucciarone PASS Coordinator