In the middle of the second half, 16-year-old Elin Palm made her way deep, folded in and put in a 6-3 free with goalkeeper Sofie Millqvist. However, there was drama right into the final minutes after Villa reduced it to both 6-4 and 6-5.
– It was great fun and I feel great and I turned the nervousness into a positive force. It was great to win the game. We found each other and played around the ball. We kept the defense tight in the middle so they had to step around, says Palm, who feels how she develops after every match and practice.
Västerås lost 3-0 to 3-2 when the match time was 30 minutes and then many probably thought that league leader Villa would turn the game around and win as they did in the SC final last spring. But Västerås would retain the initiative.
“Make too many mistakes”
In the SC final, Villa won 7-4 and in the meeting in the elite series in Lidköping last autumn, Villa won 8-4 before VSK could emerge victorious in today’s match, which was played in the future SC final arena.
– We make too many mistakes and VSK play a good match and take advantage of our carelessness. They have a lot of good players. To earn points, we would have had to play a better match, says Villa’s captain Agnes Ögren.
To top it all off, Villa lost the series lead to Sandviken, who beat the youthful jumbo Vänersborg, the oldest player 18 years old, with 24-0 after nine goals from former Villa player Tilda Ström.
Later, a replay of the men’s SC final in bandy will be played in the same arena in Västerås between the same teams.