Sports Briefs – Top 16-soccer team and more

Top-16 soccer team

Westminster Christian Academy graduate Mackenzie Pfitzinger helped the Baylor University Club soccer team finish in the top 16 in the nation.

Pfitzinger, a senior captain who is graduating in the spring, and her teammates competed in the NCCAS National Soccer Championship, held in Memphis, Tenn. The Bears beat Cornell 1-0 but lost their next two games – 4-0 to Ohio State and 1-0 to Santa Barbara – to be eliminated.

Baylor earned its spot in the national tournament by winning the regional tournament. Pfitzinger made the game-winning goal against Texas A&M.

“I made the goal after my teammate, Haley Harris, worked the ball out from our defensive half, skillfully maneuvered and passed A&M’s defense and timed for me to run and kick the ball into the net,” Pfitzinger said.

She scored the lone goal against Cornell when one of her teammates took a shot from the left and it bounced off the left post. Pfitzinger redirected it into the net.

“In my four years at Baylor, my team has made it to nationals twice,” Pfitzinger said.

Pfitzinger has played club soccer since she was 9 years old. She played varsity at Westminster for four years and continued on to play club soccer at Baylor for four years.

“I played for Warren Smith, such a great coach, at Westminster,” Pfitzinger said.

She had the school record for goals scored over four years with 76 and was all-conference for four years. Pfitzinger was second team all-state as a senior.

Pfitzinger plans to graduate in the spring with a degree in exercise physiology. Then she will attend physical therapy school in the fall of 2014.

 

Youth girls soccer

West County’s Ascension Indians, a sixth-grade girls soccer team, won the 2012 CYC City County Championship in the Crusader Closed Division.

The championship game took place at Saint Louis University High School and Ascension scored a 1-0 victory over St. Catherine Laboure.

Coach Tom Federer said this team was “awesome, to use a much overused term.”

To qualify, the girls won the West County CYC District Closed Division playoffs, earning a 5-1 win over St. John Lutheran’s at St. Monica’s in West County. The game was played in near freezing rain with a final score of 5-1.

Ascension won both the quarterfinals (against St. Ferdinand – North County CYC) and the semifinals (against Immaculate Conception – Arnold – South County CYC) by penalty kicks. The girls played three successive 10-minute overtime periods in both games before penalty kicks decided the outcome.

In the championship game, Federer said his girls were ready.

“I knew they had the experience and toughness to succeed in the playoffs,” Federer said. “They were focused and ready for the challenge. I also told my players, that the way they handled adversity against a succession of tough competitors in difficult conditions and situations would make any coach proud.”

In the championship game, Federer said his girls “played a very disciplined and well-coached team.”

With less then 20 minutes left to play, Wingett on a breakaway through pass, overcame three converging defenders to get a shot off that just made it past the keeper for the one and only score of the game.

“Winning the final without overtime periods or penalty kicks was a great relief,” Federer said. “After coaching several Ascension soccer teams over the last dozen years or so, (I realize that) children really do grow up fast. So at the end of each season, win or lose, I look back and treasure the time and privilege it is to be able to coach such wonderful children in the great St. Louis sport of soccer.”

• • •

The St. Joseph Manchester fifth-grade girls soccer team won the Archdiocese of St. Louis CYC Midget Closed Division Championship by defeating our Lady of Pillar 2-0.

The girls were coached by Dan Fleming and he was assisted by Dave Reimer and Patty Geurkink. The team went undefeated (16-0) the entire season, with a 10-0 regular season record and a 6-0 record in tournament play. The team also won the Ascension Parish soccer tournament held at the fields in Chesterfield Valley Sports complex for the third year in a row in their age division.

“What is neat about the girls’ successful season is we are a closed team,” Fleming said. “So we do not have any club players. We were undefeated in the A division all season. Our current team has been together for three years.”

Future plans for the team are still undecided, Fleming said.

“It’s tough to keep kids from advancing to the more competitive club teams,” Fleming said. “Once they move up, it’s how to balance conflicts to field a team to play in the regular CYC league. St. Joseph of Manchester has had three ‘A’ division teams for the past two years. Last year the teams came in first, second and third with our team being in third. There is a lot of talent in the parish.”

 

High school baseball

The third annual College Prospect Development Camp will be held Dec. 16 and Dec. 23 at St. Louis Sandlot.

This is more than just your normal showcase. In addition to being evaluated, players will receive instruction from college coaches.

Confirmed schools include: Bradley, Butler, Eastern Illinois, Illinois State, Memphis, Missouri, Southeast Missouri, SIU Edwardsville, SIU Carbondale, SLU, Western Illinois, and Western Kentucky. Also invited to watch will be another 30 Division II, Division III, NAIA, and NJCAA schools. Some schools will be attending both days of camp and some can only attend one day.

Visit thesandlotstl.com.

 

Tennis

The United States Tennis Association Missouri Valley named Westminster Christian Academy as the “Facility of the Year” for 2011-12, the school’s first year on its new campus in Town & Country.

The campus includes 12 har-tru post-tension courts, painted “U.S. Open” blue and green, each with modern score tenders attached to the net posts. The courts, surrounded by full windscreens, are in clusters with extended fencing and green spaces, and sets of bleachers are distributed for excellent viewing. This facility also has large restrooms nearby, in addition to water and ice machines and a full-service concession stand for special events.

Westminster hosted Junior Team Tennis matches, USTA senior league matches, the adult St. Louis District Championship tournament and the junior Missouri Valley St. Louis Outdoors Futures tournament.

When not reserved, the courts are open to the public, free of charge.

 

Gymnastics

Sydney Newbauer, of Xcel Gymnastics in Chesterfield, qualified as one of six girls to represent Missouri in the National Judges Cup Gymnastics Championships in Daytona Beach, Fla., on Jan. 5, 2013. Newbauer, 13,  is a level 7 gymnast and attends Wentzville South Middle.