Bathurst District Football's under 15s side may have not progressed out of the group stage, but the team still picked up two wins out of their three matches at the weekend's Proctor Park Challenge.
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The Bathurst side went down in its opening match 3–1 to Western Sydney-based club Bankstown City Lions, but their next two were fruitful endeavours, defeating Albury-Wodonga 2–1 and getting the better of North Shore team Lindfield 2–0.
Bathurst coach Phil Bromhead said he was "ecstatic" with how his team performed at the two-day pre-season friendly tournament.
"It's always tough with the big city clubs coming down here for the pre-season warm ups," he said.
"We get girls from the whole area, from Bathurst and Oberon. We throw teams together to go up against these big clubs but I was stoked to get a couple of wins with them."
Bathurst also fielded a team in the under 14s section of the draw, that team managing a 2–0 win against against Lindfield B.
Central West-based club Western NSW Mariners fielder a team in under 14s, under 15s, under 17s, the under 17s side the only team that managed to progress to the group stage, going down to Sutherland Shire 3–0 in the quarter finals.
Bromhead praised the performance of his side and couldn't single out one standout player.
"You couldn't fault any of them," he said.
"We throw the team together, have two to three training sessions and half the time, you don't even know all their names. But they hold their own in these tournaments.
"[This tournament] does them the world of good and gets the pre-season running into their legs.
"With these 14 to 15 age girls, they're going from juniors to the seniors. That challenge going up against the stronger clubs and players helps them on the Sunday when playing with the senior women."
In the finals, APIA Leichhardt Tigers defeated North Shore Mariners to win the under 12s title and Bankstown City Lions reigned supreme in under 14s, winning 5–4 on penalties after the match finished nil-all.
In the under 15s, ACT side Belconnen United defeated Bankstown City Lions 4–3 on penalties after the match finished 1-all and Marconi Stallions defeated Sutherland Shire 2–0 to win the under 17s.
Player of tournament was awarded to Sienna Warden (under 12s, North Shore Mairners), Liana Calabro (under 14s, Bankstown City Lions), Demi Papas (under 15s, Bankstown City Lions) and Jessica Curtale (under 17s, Marconi Stallions).