The Minnesota Freeze women's players capped off a very successful season by winning the 2009 US Australian Football Women's National Championship.  The Freeze women combine with the Milwaukee Lady Bombers.  Representing Minnesota at Nationals are Kathryn Hogg competing in her 5th Nationals (plus 2 exhibition matches), Marie LaVictoire competing in her 2nd, and rookie Tara Byers. 

The team came into nationals as the top seed in pool B and the #2 seed overall.  The top seed was defending champion Calgary Blue Kookaburras.  Pool B was definitly the tougher pool as that meant going through arch nemisis Atlanta.  Although they were 3-0 over Atlanta, the last match was a narrow, low scoring, come from behind 6 point victory.

On Saturday, play went as expected with efficient wins over Calgary White and Denver.  This set up the Sunday morning pool game against Atlanta as a semi-final to see who would get into the championship against the winner of Calgary Blue and Arizona.

No match against Atlanta is ever easy as the teams know each other extremely well and have played many times since 2006.  In the end, the midfield controlled the ball, the defense did a great job on Atlanta's renowned forwards, and a spot in the final was secured.  Due to a conflict with the Men's Div II final, the women's final was moved up to 2:15 which meant playing in just over an hour's rest.

As expected, Calgary Blue came out on top of Pool A.   The game started with Calgary controlling the ball for most of the first ten minutes.  The defense held firm and they were unable to convert scoring chances in majors.  The upstarts gradually took control and took advantage of their scoring chances to go into half time with a slim lead of 2.1.13 to 1.5.11.

In the second half, Milwaukee/Minnesota scored right off the center bounce and kept up the defensive pressure.  Accurate kicking lead to goals coming at a steady pace and the defense completely shut down Calgary.  When the final siren went off, the second half scoring was 6.2.38 for the Frozen Bombers and 0.0.0 for Calgary.

Final Scores

Milwaukee/Minnesota 8.3.51
Calgary 1.5.11 

In other news, Minnesota found a new recruit for 2010 in Missy Dykstra who was recruited from the sidelines and suited up in two matches for the Denver Lady Bulldogs (including the match against Milwaukee/Minnesota)