December 3, 2005 - The 16U
CAPS took to the floor the first weekend of December in Whitby at
the OVA 16U Girls McGregor Cup - Tier 2. Still stinging
from the 16U Provincial Cup tournament a few weeks earlier, the girls
were anxious to do well and to demonstrate their
strength.
Their first match was against Georgian
Bay Vista Sunrise from Midland, who went down in straight sets by
scores of 25-6 and 25-16. The CAPS were then ready to take a
break to begin preparing themselves for their next matches.
However, they were forced to play a third set against Vista to ensure
that all teams had equal pool play under conditions where pools had
differing numbers of teams (pool A had 4 teams while B and C had 3).
So the parental cheering section was recalled, the game was started
and then played out to another win, 25-8 for the
CAPS.
In the 2nd match of pool play the CAPS went
up against the top ranked team in the tournament, Forest City
out of London. The first set was a fairly even matchup with the
final score favouring our CAPS, 25-22. In the second set the
girls faltered a bit and fell behind early on. They could not
overcome the deficit and went down to defeat 18-25. This time
the 3rd set had some meaning and the CAPS came out looking for a win.
They would not be denied and took set 3 by a score of 15-11.
This left the team in first place in their pool as they moved to the
playoff round.
The quarter-final matchup for the CAPS was
against Titans Thunder from Etobicoke. Again the girls
came out strong in the first set, got ahead and held off their
opponents for a 25-17 win. In the second, the play was closer
even though the CAPS won by a similar margin, this time
25-19.
The girls then immediately readied
themselves for the semifinal match against Durham Attack 15U.
Based on their previous experiences over the years the girls knew that
Durham had the ability to dominate at the net and that it was going to
be a tough match. Things didn't look good in the first set -
their opponents were playing well and our CAPS lost the set,
20-25. Set 2 was a different story as the Capitals dug
deep, battled hard and put things together. The final outcome
was 25-17 in their favour, which setup a key game in the hunt for
gold. That the teams were evenly matched was clear in the 3rd
set as they both worked their scores up to a tie at 13.
One of the joys of volleyball is a quick and decisive finish and
that's what the CAPS did. The final score was 15-13, made all
that much sweeter by the fact that it was against a traditionally
tough rival.
The gold medal match was versus the
Waterdown Raiders. By this time it was early evening and the
active players were getting tired. Combine that with the thrill
of handing Attack a defeat and you had a CAPS team that came out a bit
flat. The girls would have to settle for silver on this day as
Waterdown took the championship match 18-25, 19-25. But the
girls had achieved their goal of making the move back up to Tier 1 for
their next 16U date at the OVA Challenge Cup in late
January.
Coach Harris was clearly pleased with the
day: "It's great that the girls won silver, they worked hard
and earned their medal."
Many thanks to our billet hosts for opening
their doors and providing space for all to sleep. Your
generosity is much appreciated. As well, thanks to the parents,
for organizing the great lunch and snacks, for cheering and for
driving. Now, if we could just figure out what all that knitting
was about...
Results/OVA 16U Girls McGregor Cup -
Tier 2:
Gold: Waterdown Raiders
Silver: National
Capitals
Bronze: Durham Attack 15U
4. Birch Cliff Crush
5. Northern Chill (Sudbury)
5. Etobicoke Titans Thunder
7. Forest City (London)
7. DRVC Blue (Ashburn)
9. Ottawa Mavericks
10. Georgian Bay Vista Sunrise
(Midland)
