After 23 weeks of competition and only 2 nights before Provincial Championships in St. Catharine's, the 18U Girls still found enough grit to battle valiantly on the first night of OCVL playoff action at Cité Collégiale in Vanier.  Despite being short-staffed and a little banged up, the girls would rally to take the top team in the OCVL to 5 sets and, in the process, prove that they belonged in this league of savvy veterans.

The courts at Cité Collégiale have not been particularly kind to the 18U Girls.  Whenever they were fortunate enough to claw their way into Top 8 and out of the cold confines of the Nepean Sportsplex, the spacious facility at Cité would seemingly suck the life out of the team's game.  This is borne out by the CAPS' average position after 6 months of OCVL competition: 8.8 out of  40 .  Everytime they made it to Cité, the girls would have a rough outing and get bumped back down to the Sportsplex.  But a few well timed victories in the month of March would prove to be just enough to secure the girls a spot in the top group for playoff action.

Momentous.ca - Court Jesters, the league's No. 1 team, would be their opponents in this sudden death struggle to get to the Final Four.  Despite having a captain who was only able to play from the back row, and missing 2 of their middle hitters, the Capitals nonetheless made a match of it with a see-saw performance representative of the team's record at OCVL this season.  There were highs, like Ashley's back-set dump to P4, and Jessie splitting the seam from back row, but a few too many mistakes would ultimately do the CAPS in.  The experienced ladies at OCVL will not necessarily overpower you with offence, but they will challenge and force you to beat them through sound defensive positioning, economical court movement and smart ball placement.  On this night the girls would miss too many service opportunities and hit the ball wide or long a few too many times to be able to defeat the wiley Jesters.  The 18Us certainly put a scare into the league's top team, but ultimately the CAPS would go down to defeat in 5 sets by scores of 20-25, 25-19. 18-25, 25-21, and 10-15.  In the process, the CAPS earned a very respectable tie for 5th place out of 40 teams for the 2004-2005 OCVL season.

On behalf of the players, the NCVC would like to thank the OCVL and all its competitors for having provided the girls the opportunity to compete on a regular basis against such skilled and talented volleyball veterans.  The experience and maturity gained from playing regularly at such a high level has undoubtedly improved the team's overall game by challenging the girls with an entirely different style of play than that which they see in the OVA.  Congratulations as well to all the players, coaches and parents for having made the effort and sacrifice required to represent the club with such skill and grace during this, our inaugural season at OCVL.

Now it's off to Provincials and Nationals to put some of this experience to work -  GO CAPS GO!