Girl footballers made Orissa by delivering impressive performance in the AFC Under-14 Festival at Colombo, Sri Lanka, from April 30 to May 5. India vice-captain Karishma Oram (Rourkela), Kaushalya Barik, Subhaprabha Rout and Mamali Das (all Bhubaneswar) were accorded a heart-warming reception when the girls returned home today. Three felicitation functions kept the quartet of young footballers busy through out the day. The felicitation series commenced at Sneha, a local orphanage where Mamali stays and concluded at Cuttack, where Orissa cricket and Olympic association secretary Asirbad Behera handed over a prize of Rs 35,000 to each of the four players. In between, the girls were heartily congratulated in a function at a star hotel here. Former India woman football captain Sradhanjali Samantaray, her India teammate Ranjita Mohanty, international woman powerlifter Ranu Mohanty, woman football coaches Nanada Kishore Patnaik, Bijay Kumar Kanungo and Orissa Football Association official Sahadev Rout were present in these functions. The four girls described the AFC Festival as good opportunity to gain experience and exposure. ‘‘We learned many new skills and techniques. We enjoyed the festival a lot,’’ they said.