March 4, 2006 - Sleeping on flat, hard beds at a
local hotel in Sherbrooke did not come between the 18U girls and their
goal of taking home some golden "bling" to wear around their necks
from the Volleyball Quebec Omnium du Quebec 18 ans et moins.
Neither did the fact that the gold medal match ended at 10PM in the
evening! Only nine of the girls were available to travel the 2-3
hour drive east on the 417 to match up against sixteen other girls
teams who came together in the beautiful region of Sherbrooke for this
big tournament.
In pool play Coach Matt Harris led the girls to a 7&1 record
to start the day, beating Élan, Diablos and
Phénix in straight sets, and losing only 1 game to
Hybride. This placed the CAPS 1st in pool going into the
quarterfinals.
In the first match of the playoffs against Mistral, it was
not necessary to play 3 as the CAPS took both quarterfinal sets, 25-23
and 25-18, thereby moving themselves one step closer to their golden
goal. In the semis, the third game proved
crucial, as Envolley took the first set 21-25, which forced the
CAPS to come out strong to win the second 25-19. The tiebreaker
then went to the CAPS in a very close 16-14 win.
The CAPS were assured a medal, silver or gold, and thus began the
last match of the day against Celtique, the tournament's #1
seed. These teams had something in common: Celtic had also
placed first in their pool earlier in the day and, no doubt, they
wanted to keep the gold away from the girls from Ontario.
The CAPS took the first set 25-11, which seemed to motivate
Celtique to come out stronger in the 2nd. They did just that,
defeating the CAPS 18-25, but the girls were not going to let the
pressure get to them. Maintaining steadfast composure, our girls
took a very close and exciting 3rd set by yet another score of
16-14.
It was a very exciting end to a very long day! This marks
the second year in the row that the 18U CAPS have taken home the
banner from the Quebec Omnium 18U. Congrats to Coach Matt and
the girls for all your success.
Much thanks to Bob, Luke and Paul for getting the girls home
safely back to Ottawa sometime after 1AM!
