The Vardar U13 girls team, representing the state of Michigan, won the US Youth Soccer Midwest Region II tournament, held June 24-29 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
The U13 girls are the first girl’s team in the Vardar club history to win a regional title.
The Vardar U13 girls team faced the Carmel United Soccer Club team from Indiana in its first preliminary game.
The teams tied 1-1. In their second game, the Vardar girls met the South Dakota State Cup champions, Destiny Gold, and won 4-0.
In a third preliminary game, Vardar beat the Minnesota State champions, Woodbury Inferno, by a score of 3-0.
By winning two games and tying one, Vardar advanced to the semi-finals and played the Ohio North State Cup representatives, Cleveland Internationals.
Vardar won 8-1 to advance into the finals.
The championship game pitted Vardar against the Illinois State Cup champions, the CIS Knockouts. Vardar won the championship with a 5-0 finish.
The region is comprised of 13 states with teams represented from Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio North and Ohio South.
To be eligible for the tournament, teams must be State Cup champions in their respective states.