December 3, 2005 - The 15U
CAPS travelled to Cambridge on December 3rd to play up an age division
to the OVA 16U Girls McGregor Cup - Tier 1, against the top
16U teams in Ontario. This would prove to be a learning
experience for the girls and a great opportunity to see some really
tough competition. The girls spent Friday night billeting with
two families in Waterloo, and met at the gym early Saturday morning.
A great surprise greeted the girls upon their arrival: CAPS alum
Megan O'Doherty, who is now a York University Lion,
joined her mother on the bench.
Right out of the starting gate, the team
were matched up against a very strong Durham Attack Black
team. Hitting and blocking their way to a 17-12 lead, the girls
entertained their supporters with strategic tips and hits off the
Attack block. However, Attack remained calm and stuck to their game
plan of serving hard at the CAPS. Unfortunately, the girls'
serve-receive faltered, giving the set to Attack: 22-25. Set 2
saw the Durham squad continue to serve hard, never letting the CAPS
get their offense running, and handing the CAPS another 15-25 loss,
and the match.
Without a break, the CAPS took to the court
right away against ACTS Elites from Orangeville. Learning
the lesson of serving from the first match, the CAPS jumped out to an
11-0 lead with some blistering serves of their own. Keeping the
Elites off-balance with their middle hitting and blocking, the CAPS
took the first set by a resounding score of 25-10. Set 2 saw a
CAPS team that had lost its first set balance, giving up 3 rotation
points to hand Elites the momentum they needed to win the set 16-25.
Set 3 saw more trouble on service reception, but the CAPS never gave
up. The girls dug their way out of a 4 point deficit to come
within 2 points, only to finally succumb to the Elites: 13-15.
This placed them 3rd in Pool C.
Forced to face the 2nd placed team from
Pool B, the CAPS teed off in the first playoff round against
Waterloo Tigers Black and their very impressive middle Becky
Pavan, little (?) sister of the NCAA's Big 12 Conference Player of
The Year, Sarah Pavan (www.huskers.com). Facing a
disciplined and multi-faceted offense, the CAPS did their best to dig
the blistering hits, but to no avail. The match went to the Tigers
25-10, 25-9. This loss meant that the CAPS would now be
relegated to Tier 2 for the next 16U tournament, but the girls still
needed to play for pride to settle the 9th and 11th place
positions.
In a match pitting two 15U teams against
each other, the CAPS faced Forest City Green 15U from London.
Once again, with their opponents serving missles, the CAPS
serve-receive faltered, as the team fell behind 5-16. The girls
fought hard for a comeback, but in the end, the first set went to
Forest City: 18-25. The last set of the day saw more of the
same. Though the girls dug hard and hustled for every ball, they
were never quite able to catch up to their opponents, dropping the set
and their final match 19-25.
Finishing in 11th place was not the result
the team had hoped for, but the exposure to a higher level of play
will certainly benefit the girls as they train hard for the
upcoming 15U Girls McGregor Cup - Tier 1 in Stratford on
December 17th. Coach O'Doherty was somewhat relieved after the
tournament. "The girls' performance at the 16U Provincial
Cup a month ago was pretty miraculous, but to imagine that this group
of girls could continue to challenge the top 16U teams in the province
would have been really unrealistic and unfair to them. I'm
looking forward to our next date at16U Tier 2 to see how the girls do
at that level of competition."
Many thanks to the billeting families, the
Boghossians and the Beans, for opening their homes to the team; to
Megan O'Doherty who supplied the Rockets - I mean 'energy pills'
when the girls were down; and to the parents who braved black ice and
snow on the 401 to come out & support the team.
