The Penticton Ice Girls have been together since last fall.

Training together over the fall and winter helped the under-16B rep fastball team become a close group. It doesn鈥檛 matter that they are from all over the Okanagan (Penticton, Summerland, Peachland, 琉璃神社 and Lake Country).

琉璃神社鈥檚 Jaden Allen said the team feels like home. Allen loves the fact the teammates accept each other.

鈥淭hey are just amazing,鈥� she said.

Summerland鈥檚 Ryan Taylor loves every one of them. They are great friends, not just teammates.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a great feeling when everybody feels united. You feel more confident as a team going on the field, you feel like you can win the game,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f you mess up, someone has your back.鈥�

The quick-developing friendships has delivered results on the field, though the start was a slow going winless in five games in their first tournament. It has gone better since in tournament action and playing in a under-19 C league, in which they have won four of seven games.

鈥淲hat we鈥檙e trying to do is get them into their rep mentality. By doing that we鈥檙e just teaching all this new stuff that they have never seen before,鈥� said Ice Girls coach Jeff Korven. 鈥淚n house it鈥檚 play everyone, bat everyone. In this, it鈥檚 play nine and bat nine. You have got to earn your spot.鈥�

Danika Bergenn of Penticton is loving the season and adjusting to Korven鈥檚 coaching.

鈥淚 had always wanted to play rep ball,鈥� said Bergenn. 鈥淚 always wanted to be super competitive. Learn all the signals and the different types of pitches and take it to a whole other level.鈥�

Facing older competition isn鈥檛 bad she said and it is based on their fear level.

鈥淚f you step on the field and you are confident, then you are going to do just fine,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f you have faith in your coach and what he is telling you to do, you will do fine. We always try our best. We don鈥檛 get down on each other when making mistakes.鈥�

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Allen, who has been playing for 11 years, said it has been challenging against older teams.

鈥淭here are some teams that are stronger, which makes us want to fight for the win more,鈥� said Allen. 鈥淚t makes us push ourselves even more.鈥�

Korven said they have been phenomenal in responding to older competition. The butterflies are gone.

鈥淭hey believe in themselves,鈥� he said.

After hitting the midway mark of their season last week, losing to Cawston (which placed third in provincials last year) twice, the Ice Girls lost 6-5 in extra innings of their quarter-final match against Abbotsford in an Aldergrove tournament. Korven wants to see the players continue to play well and said they have improved by 鈥渓eaps and bounds.鈥�

鈥淭hey are finally starting to think like ball players,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 need them to see exactly how good they have to be to play at this level. We鈥檙e going to be playing a lot of good teams.鈥�

The best will come in the Canada Cup International Softball Championship July 7 to 17. The championship features a Women鈥檚 International and Elite division, Futures under-19 18U Gold/A & U18 A/B and Showcase under-16 A as well as A/B division.

鈥淓very one of these teams is phenomenal. We鈥檙e just blessed to be invited to go to this,鈥� said Korven.鈥漈his will be the highlight of these girls softball lives.鈥�

Just mentioning the Canada Cup and faces light up.

鈥淲e can kind of go there and there is scouts watching. With the scouts there you have to be confident,鈥� said Bergenn, who has made big improvements in her skills. 鈥淭hat will be really fun.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 such a big opportunity,鈥� said Taylor. 鈥淵ou get to play a better level of ball. Everybody on the team is competitive.鈥�

鈥淚鈥檓 really excited for this. I want to see how the teams are,鈥� said Allen. 鈥淚 want to play against them so badly. I want to push myself even more and fight for that win. We definitely want to win that.鈥�