Royal City-trained girls will be front and centre at the 2011 national girls' lacrosse championships in New Westminster, beginning Saturday.
B.C.'s bantam team will boast six girls from the host New Westminster association on the provincial squad, including goalie Bianca Ballarin and teammates Kristin Hackett, Zoe Loewen, Emily Manville, Allison Shanks and Naomi Noda.
Melissa Caviglia, Mary McQueen, Tristan Ranford, Shaya Sandhu, Morgan Sherley, Lauren Stewart and Rianne Wilkinson will make up a core of the first-ever midget girls' team.
The midget girls' nationals, held in conjunction with the bantam tournament, will take place at the same time at Queen's Park Arena from Saturday, July 23 to Thursday, July 28.
B.C. lost in the final to Ontario at the two previous bantam championships.
This year, four provincial representative teams, including Alberta, Ontario and Team Atlantic, will take part in both the bantam and midget championships. Iroquois Nation was a late withdrawl.
Tournament director Jamie Stewart said lacrosse fans will see the game the way it is supposed to be played.
"These girls can pass and catch just as well as the boys and the goaltending is fantastic," Stewart said, adding most of the girls have grown up with lacrosse sticks in their hands.
"(The games) will be high-paced, especially the B.C. Ontario games. I suspect it will be run and gun."
The medal games for both divisions will be played on the Thursday, beginning with the bronze medal bantam game at 11 a.m. The midget bronze matchup will follow at 12:30 p.m.
The gold-medal finals are scheduled to begin with the bantams at 2:15 p.m. at Queen's Park Arena.
The midget final will be a 3:45 p.m. start.
Closing ceremonies will follow the games at 5:30 p.m.
