The Garden City Girls U-11 Freedom Travel Team The Garden City Girls U-11 Freedom Travel Team started their season with a 1-0 victory in the Waldbaum's Cup over New Hyde Park's Kool Kats on Saturday March 18th.

The game had a slow start with both sides being a little rusty after the winter break. It wasn't long before both teams were aggressively playing and it was apparent that the both teams were evenly matched. Freedom played a strong defensive first half with the Kool Kats playing more offensively. Freedom played the field with a 3-4-3 lineup while the Kool Kats played 3-3-4 giving them four offensive players against Freedom's three offensive players. Olivia Donachie's aggressive Goalkeeping was crucial in keeping the game scoreless in the first half.

The second half started out more aggressively for Freedom with Kristi Pelizzoli, Kelly Sprotte, Olivia Giordano and Courtney Basel playing strong attacking positions. Freedom's second half started moving the ball up field with strong teamwork ball passing between the defense, midfielders, and strikers. Kristen Steinhardt, Shana Maglio, Lauren Wierzel, and Zoe Zeno played a strong midfield, while the defense, Katie Kiely, Marina McKeown, Olivia Chessman settled down and started clearing the lines. Marguerite Rix, Courtney Murphy Jessica Gunther, and Olivia Donachie played several positions giving the team the bench depth needed to keep the pressure on the Kool Kats. Jessica Gunther was a fearless goaltender even after taking a boot to the face.

After a handball in the penalty area, Kristi Pelizzoli scored the only goal of the game on a penalty kick. The remainder of the game consisted of several counter attacks in which the Kool Kats pressed hard to try to even the score. However Freedom came back each time almost netting goals from Kelly Sprotte and Kristi Pelizzoli. The bulk of the possession in the last 5 minutes belonged to GC Freedom with the Kool Kats getting the last breakaway of the game. Marina McKeown utilizing her speed was able to chase down the Kool Kat player preventing her from attacking the net while Lauren Wierzel cut her off from the side kicking the ball out of play thwarting Kool Kats last chance to score.