The MVLA Avalanche team won their third CYSA State Cup Championship yesterday with a 2-0 victory over the DeAnza Force 93 team in the U18 Girls division. The Avalanche Team made five appearances at the State Cup Finals since 2005, and won three State Cup titles and finished twice as Finalists. This was the third time both Avalanche and DeAnza competed against each other at the State Cup finals; MVLA won twice and Force won once on a PK back in 2009.

In another battle royale between the two elite NorCal teams, the Avalanche girls had their winds to their backs in the first half of the game in Elk Grove near Sacramento. A crossing ball served by Emily Mosbacher from the right side of the field, and was one-touch flicked into the goal by a sprinting Audrey Gibson to break the deadlock and put MVLA on the score board.  Near the end of the first half, the Avalanche team got a second goal off a corner kick that was first headed by Kate Bettinger into a very crowded goal box, where Micheala Matulich headed the ball into the net while she was falling on the ground from a mad scramble of bodies. The Avalanche Team went into half-time with a 2-0 lead, and prepared for the Force Team to come-out strong with the wind in the DeAnza favor.  But the MVLA girls defended with stength and used their technical skills to control the ball posession and game to win their third state championship title.

The team qualifies to compete at the 2011 Region IV Far West Regional Tournament held in Boise, Idaho from June 18th-26th. The MVLA Avalanche Team competed at the Far West Regionals twice before; finished as QuarterFinalists in 2007 in Las Vegas, and as SemiFinalists in 2008 in Hawaii.

The MVLA Avalanche Team breezed through their first round of bracket play in their last State Cup tournament run together scoring 19 goals and keeping a "clean sheet" not allowing any goals into their net. MVLA head to Cherry Island this weekend to play the Merced United Team in the U18 girls QuarterFinals game at 10am on Field #8. If the team wins on Saturday, they will play a 8am SemiFinal game against the winner of the QuarterFinal game between Santa Rosa United and the Pleasanton Rage U18AC team).

The MVLA Avalanche Team welcome Audrey Gibson and Kate Bettinger to the team after high school soccer ends in February. Audrey and Kate will play for their Marin FC Team at the Las Vegas College Showcase, then compete for MVLA at the NorCal Spring Showcase and State Cup.

Audrey has been a member of the '93 Regional ODP and Cal-North State ODP Teams for over five years, along with some of the Avalanche players. Last spring, she traveled to Portugal and Spain with Kelsey Foo on a Regional ODP Trip. She is a 2011 graduate and will play collegiate soccer at Duke University. Kate Bettinger is a 2012 grad who already gave a verbal commit to play soccer at Stanford. She is a member of the U15 US National Team, and has also played on various ODP Teams with some of the Avalanche players.