As I rolled out of bed at 4:00 Friday morning, I knew that all across the city eight of my teammates were awaking as well.  I was really excited because I hadn't been to Calgary since I was about four years old, but what I was most excited about was competing against some of the best teams in the country.  Everyone knows that western teams are strong, so we were anxious to see how we would match up.

Upon arriving in Calgary to compete in the Volleyball Canada 2005 Canadian West Open - 16 & Under, we had to immediately grab our bags and head out to the Olympic Oval.  After an exhausting morning we had an hour practice so that we could get the feel of the Sport Court.  Once we finished practicing we rushed off to meet our billets.  We didn't have much time, only enough to unpack and eat before we had to head back to the University of Calgary to watch Canada's National Mens 'B' Team play against Holland.  Although Canada lost 3-0 we had a chance to watch a high level of play, and Camille even caught a prize that was thrown into the crowd by a player from Holland!  After the game we took pictures with some of our favourite players (#2 and #12) and Matt introduced us to the libero.  It was an exciting end to a busy day, and as we headed back to our billets we began to refocus on the day ahead.

On Saturday we were in the morning wave, which meant our first game was at 7:30.  We were to finish around 1PM, giving us the afternoon off.  Our first set of the day, against Parkland (Dauphin MB), was kind of like our warm-up because we definitely were not playing our best.  Our 23-25 loss was almost embarrassing, which drove us to play better in the next game.  We turned our play around and won the next two sets easily, 25-11 and 15-7.  Winning our second match of the day against Queens Extreme (Red Deer AB) by scores of 25-13 and 25-19 gave us some much needed confidence and pushed the first match out of our minds.  Two losses (21-25, 15-25) in our last match against XVC (Burnaby BC), meant that we had won two matches and lost one, which helped create a three-way tie for first place in our pool, because three teams had all lost one game.  Thankfully, the tiebreaker went down to points and we placed second.

Our problem throughout the tournament had been that we would fight hard until about the middle of the match when we'd fall into a lull.  We would later fight back only to lose the set in the last few tight points.  This would have to change for us to have any hope of advancing to the medal round.

Saturday afternoon many of us enjoyed a quick shopping trip in downtown Calgary.  We only had about half an hour, but we definitely made good use of our time.  We walked out of the mall, feeling satisfied, our hands overflowing with bags.  We then made our way to Calgary's Chinatown where we found a nice buffet.  Once our stomachs were full we went for a walk along the Bow River.  There were geese everywhere along the river - Chantelle and Laura enjoyed a couple of minutes chasing after them.

On Sunday we were set to play in the afternoon wave.  We were all very grateful for a long sleep after two early mornings.  At 10AM we met as a team for brunch.  Unfortunately, there were a few problems at the door when a man waiting in line behind us saw all of us walking in.  Thanks to Bob's patience, everything was taken care of.  Although our morning was very relaxed, the games that lay ahead were always in the back of our minds.

Our first match on Sunday was against one of the best Manitoba teams.  The games were close but we were defeated in two sets (14-25, 24-26) by Club West Rage from Virden.  This team eventually went on to the finals, which showed us that we did have the talent to compete with the best.  However, we lost our next match against Selkirk Royals (Selkirk MB) in two sets as well (23-25, 19-25) which was very disappointing.  We knew we could have beaten Selkirk, but this second loss now meant that we would be in Tier II for the playoffs and that we had lost our chance at the championship round.  But we shrugged off the loss and won our last match against Innisfail Invasion (Innisfail AB) rather easily, 25-12, 25-19.

On Monday we were once again lucky enough to sleep in, as our first set wasn't till noon.  But Monday started well, and we won our first two matches of the day against Nanaimo BC's Express Blue (25-18, 25-14) and Saskatchewan's Rocanville Brash (24-26, 25-11, 16-14), securing our spot in the Tier II finals.  If we could win that game we would place ninth out of the 110 teams entered in the tournament!  We were up against Air Attack Impact from Richmond BC.  We were disappointed to lose the first set 20-25, but we knew that one of the great things about volleyball is that you always have a chance to come back.  Cathy, Jill and Camille had to leave after the first set because they were catching a plane back to Ottawa that evening.  So in the second set we had no substitutions - it was all or nothing.  We worked hard for every point and pressured the other team to make mistakes.  We won 25-21, which meant we were going into a third set.  But we were unable to make things work like we had done in the second and lost the third set 8-15.  We had finished tenth in western Canada, which was definitely nothing to be ashamed of.  As one of only two eastern Canadian teams at the event, I feel that we represented the east well and that we gained confidence in our abilities.

With the tournament over we had one day left of sightseeing before we would have to head back home.  On Tuesday we had the chance to visit the Rockies.  Although we got split into two groups at the beginning of the day, and we were never able to join up as planned, both groups had a great time.  We stayed at Lake Louise for only a short while before driving to Banff and checking out the souvenir shops.  We then took a gondola to the summit of Mount Sulphur.  Many of us had never been to the Rockies so it was very special to share something new with close teammates.  We then decided to hike down the mountain rather than take the gondola down.  We were unaware that the path we were taking was not the right one and two hours later, as we reached the bottom, we found out that we were on the opposite side of the mountain.  Cave and Basin, a hot springs cave with a rare species of snails, was nearby so we called a cab from there.  Since the attraction was closing in five minutes the very kind operator allowed us to go in for free since he thought we'd already been through enough that day!

Our trip to Calgary was a great way to finish off our season and I know that everyone had a great time.  Thanks to our three excellent coaches Cathy, Matt and Lorraine for making this season so memorable, and thanks to Bob and Deborah for all the hard work they put into organizing our season and planning our trips.