Two local Cochrane athletes took to the stage and represented Alberta at the 2018 Female Box Lacrosse Nationals July 21 to July 25 in Halifax. Ruby Irwin and goaltender Kaylee McKay were named to Alberta's Bantam team that won a silver medal after a 5-3 loss at the hands of Team British Columbia (BC) in a hard fought battle. Alberta's road to the final began with a n18-1 victory over Team Nova Scotia on July 22, a game where Irwin scored the team's 12th goal. Their second win came later in the day with a 6-4 edging of Team Ontario, a game decided by the team's two goaltenders. McKay stood on her head throughout the contest making 44 saves on 48 shots, including a few huge saves midway through the first period with her team down a goal as well as late in the game with her team nursing a two-goal advantage. The team took to the floor again the next day with games against Team BC as well as a second meeting with team Nova Scotia. The first game was tied 3-3 with under two minutes to go before the Albertans swarmed the BC netminder and were able to fire home the game winning goal at the 18:30 mark of the third period to give Alberta a 4-3 victory with McKay once again standing tall by stopping 24 of the 27 shots she faced in the game. The team shut out Team Nova Scotia 10-0 to set up Team Alberta's final day of round robin play heading in with a 4-0 record. The team closed out the round robin portion only needing one more win over either Ontario or British Columbia in order to push themselves into the Bantam finals on July 25. The ladies got their bid into the finals after shutting out Ontario 3-0 before losing 6-5 to BC to set up the gold medal match with their BC counterparts, resulting in silver and a 5-2 overall record. Even with the loss, Irwin and McKay both had outstanding tournaments. Irwin played in all seven of her team's games registering a goal and two assists while also being a crucial part of Alberta's defence that led the tournament with the fewest goals against. McKay on the other hand started in five games in net, going 3-2 with a shut out. Over the course of the five games she played in, she only allowed 18 goals on the 143 shots, resulting in a 3.60 goals-against-average as well as a .888 save percentage, fantastic numbers for a box lacrosse goalie. Despite the gold medal game loss, Irwin said she was still very proud to represent her province and be able to bring home a medal. "Winning silver was very important to me after working hard for a good portion of the season for this one week of games. I was glad to see it pay off," said Irwin. "It was so incredible to hear that I had even made the team ... I couldn't believe I had actually done that, let alone win a medal at nationals. All the work from tryouts to at home practising, it all payed off. All the help I received from my family truly helped too." "It was an amazing opportunity for Kaylee and myself, and will now hopefully lead to bigger and better things." Team Alberta was comprised of girls coming from all parts of the province. Irwin also commented on how quickly the team came together in order to become a family. "It was very crazy seeing my team and I go from a bunch of girls who didn't know a whole lot about one another, but knowing we all had the same passion for lacrosse," Irwin said. "We came together very quickly which is a huge part as to why we were successful over the course of the tournament and resulted in us coming home with silver. Our coaches were also amazing and helped us all so much, which made us better players and people." "We were a little nervous heading into the first game but once we stepped on the floor and starting playing, all the worry and stress went away and muscle memory kicked in." Both Irwin and McKay plan on using the next few months to train as well as attend lacrosse camps in order to prepare for their upcoming season.
