March 21, 2012
FIRST STEPS
Women's league returns to LISFL

The Long Island Soccer Football League kicked off its first adult women's league game in more than a decade this past weekend.

In what LISFL president Gus Xikis called a "great success," Mineola Portuguese SC W played the South Shore Spirit (Valley Stream) and Oyster Bay Fenerbache W took on College Point Flame W, proving that "we are in the middle of a soccer revival on Long Island."
The first win honors fell to College Point, which defeated OB Fenerbache, 6-3.

But Xikis contended that the real victory was organizing the league in less than a few weeks.

"It wasn't easy, but effort, hard work, and a determined board are all to thank for putting those four teams on the field last Sunday."

LISFL first vice president, Terry Uellendahl, coach for the Mineola Portuguese SC adult teams, directed a team of former and current professional women in the club's first adult women's game. Uellendahl considered the new LISFL division a "magnet" for local talent that have been scattered since Women's Professional Soccer halted its 2012 season. He added that the Board was confident the league will as much as double in size by next fall.

"The talent that we were able to recruit in such a short time was amazing," said Gabriel Marques, LISFL director of public relations and Mineola Portuguese SC vice president. "This new division puts a magnifying glass to the young women on Long Island that will be used to help recruit them into colleges or provide a place for them to play after their careers."

International players performing in the league include Mineola Portuguese SC and Hofstra student Salma Tarik, who recently returned from Egypt, where she scored a goal in a 4-2 win over Ethopia in the Women's African Cup.