Westlock’s Britannie Ouimet has finished her freshman year with Limestone College in South Carolina after competing in the National Collegiate Athletics Association’s (NCAA) Division II Women’s Lacrosse Tournament.
And for her biggest fan, it’s been a great season for the 18 year old who played front, left-side attack for the 17-2 Saints.
“She’s had a great, great freshman year. She has 66 points — 36 goals and 30 assists — going into today’s game,” said her father Pierre Ouimet before Britannie’s first match of the tournament May 11.
“I could give you stats and numbers. I know more numbers than I probably need to know.”
“We had a great season, ending it by winning our conference championship at the end of April,” added Britannie.
“Since the end of March we knew that in order to have a chance at NCAAs we would need to win out the rest of our schedule, which we did and I thought we responded really well to that pressure.”
The Limestone Saints took their stellar season record into the first game of the NCAA tournament only to fall to the sixth ranked Florida Tech Panthers by a score of 13-11.
She scored two goals in the losing effort, but said just getting to the tournament was a victory.
“Being one of only 12 teams selected into the NCAA playoffs was definitely an accomplishment in and of itself. We tried to look at it as just another game where we needed to go out and execute the game plan and not put too much pressure on ourselves,” said Britannie.
“Lacrosse is very much a game of momentum. We can out strong and put up the first few goals and it went back and forth like that most of the game.
“Unfortunately, our comeback fell just short at the end … I just tried to enjoy the experience and play hard.”
Britannie started playing box lacrosse in Westlock many years ago. At the time there were no girls teams so she played with the boys’ teams. Playing the field game was an adjustment she had to make to be successful at Limestone.
“I’m definitely adjusted now and I feel like I’ve been improving all year. I’ve been very fortunate to have great coaches along with a few of the older girls on the team who have helped me throughout the year and have taught me so much about the game,” she said.
Now that the season is over, Ouimet has returned home to Westlock and will be working for the summer while playing for the Alberta U19 women’s lacrosse team that will compete at nationals in Calgary at the end of August.
“Now that my collegiate season is over, I’m looking forward to training for that and chasing a different national championship.”
