April 8-9, 2006 - On Friday
morning, April 7th, three vans set out from Ottawa headed towards St.
Catharines with only one mission in mind - to bring home a second
consecutive OVA 18U Girls Tier 1 Ontario Championship.
But, with only three players returning from that Championship squad,
this season's edition of the 18U CAPS knew they had a tough road
ahead of them if they were to duplicate last season's
feat.
Arriving in St. Catharines later Friday
afternoon, the girls settled into familiar surroundings at the Four
Points by Sheraton St. Catharines Niagara Suites, which was just a
couple of minutes away from Brock University, the host venue for the
competition. I say familiar since this was the same set up
utilized at last year's Championship. After enjoying a relaxing
hot tub and swim, the girls and parents went to a nearby East Side
Marios for a tasty dinner and some good laughs before returning to
their suites at the Four Points to get ready for Day 1
competition.
Day 1 of the Championship did not begin
well for the 18U CAPS. The #4 seed 18U CAPS started the
tournament playing somewhat nervously and fell in their first match to
an inspired DRVC team in two straight sets (19-25, 23-25).
With this unexpected result, the girls now had to win their next two
matches to ensure a good match-up for their first playoff game.
Next up for the girls was a very tough South County Bandits
team that forced the 18U CAPS to play some good volleyball before
succumbing to the CAPS 25-21 and 25-21. The girls final pool
match was against the #5 seed London's Forest City.
Playing with more confidence, the girls would defeat Forest City 25-19
and 25-18 to finish in second place in their four team pool behind
DRVC.
The first crossover matches of the playoff
round would pit the first place teams from each of the four pools
against the fourth place teams, and each of the second place teams
against the third place teams. In this regard, the 18U CAPS were
matched up against Toronto Royals, the third place team from
Pool B. The girls had not lost to the Royals all season long and
this time would be no different, as the CAPS prevailed 25-19 and
25-20. Playing better as the day went on, the girls had ended
Day 1 on a roll by winning their last six sets.
After a long day of competition, the girls
returned to their hotel to get freshened up for their trip to Niagara
Falls. Yes, Niagara Falls, home to one of the natural wonders
of the world. From the hotel to Niagara Falls was only a fifteen
minute drive, so before we knew it we were taking team pictures in
front of the Falls with mist falling all around us - hopefully some
of these pics turn out (please email us if you have any!).
Afterwards, it was off to Planet Hollywood for some dinner and
then a quick tour of the tourist mecca called Niagara Falls, which now
has two world class casinos and lots of bright lights and interesting
attractions. Then it was back to the hotel to get a good
night's sleep in preparation for Championship Sunday.
On Day 2 of the Championship, the 18U CAPS
started their day by participating in the OVA's Award of
Excellence Presentations. Each of the sixteen participating
teams at the Championship named their respective winners for this
award that recognizes someone who best demonstrates the qualities of
determination, leadership, athletic ability, sportsmanship and fair
play. Erin O'Doherty was the happy recipient for the
18U CAPS.
On the competition side of Day 2, the 18U
CAPS continued their playoff round play in a quarter-final match up
against York Stingrays. Continuing their good play from
the end of Day 1, the girls swept the Stingrays by scores of 25-19 and
25-17, setting up a semi-final match with the #2 seed Peel
Selects. The CAPS and Selects had played three times
previously this season, with the Selects owning two three set
victories and the CAPS a straight set victory. This semi-final
would again be a showcase of how even these two teams
are.
In set one of the semi-final, the CAPS and
Selects went at it like two heavyweights with kill after kill.
It seemed like neither team could stop the other as they stayed within
a point or two of each other until a run by the Selects had them at
24-20 and serving for the first set. But the CAPS refused to
back down and went on a mini-run of their own to tie the first set at
24. A serve-receive error and kill shot later, and our girls had
stunned the Selects 26-24 in the set 1. Set 2 was more of the
same until the 18U CAPS grabbed a 23-22 lead and were within two
points of victory. But now the reverse took place - the Selects
refused to give in and forced the CAPS into some critical mistakes
that produced a 24-26 second set victory for the Selects. In the
third set, the 18U CAPS took a commanding 8-5 lead at the changeover
and upped the lead to 12-8. A Selects run closed the cap to
13-12 for the CAPS, who were again serving and only two points from
the match. But the girls could not find the points to close out
the match and the Selects' comeback was complete when they took the
next three points for a 15-13 third set victory.
That semi-final loss was clearly
devastating for the girls, since victory had been so close at hand in
both the second and third sets. But the girls didn't have much
time to recover and regroup, as they had to immediately play the
Waterloo Tigers 17U team for the bronze medal. After a
somewhat dispirited 17-25 set 1 loss, the 18U CAPS found the resolve
to recover and win the next two sets 25-22 and 15-11 to claim the
bronze medal.
"I am really happy for the girls",
stated Head Coach Matt Harris. "To recover from such a tough
loss in the semi-final and win the bronze medal is a testament to all
the hard work they have put in this season." "The girls
played with all they had to defend that title", added Assistant
Coach Cathy O'Doherty. "The medal color is not quite what
they had hoped for, but we are all very proud of this team's
accomplishments. Finishing 3rd out of the top 40-odd teams in
Ontario is a great achievement." Coach O'Doherty continued,
"I also want to make note of the great performance by Kate
Eckhardt at this tournament. As a graduating player, Kate
provided tremendous leadership for our team throughout the weekend
and, in my view, was the most dominating player of the
tournament."
Many thanks to Ross Fetterly, Luke Luecke
and Bob O'Doherty for driving all the girls down to St. Catharines
for the Championship, and to Norm Eckhardt, Ann and Dan Planetta, the
Carmanicos, and the O'Doherty clans from both Etobicoke and Thorold
that came out to cheer the girls on. Next up for the 18U CAPS is
the Volleyball Canada 18U Girls Canadian Open in Abbotsford, BC
from May 5-7, 2006.
Results/OVA 18U Girls Tier 1 Ontario
Championships:
Gold: Durham Attack Black (Oshawa)
Silver: Peel Selects 88 (Brampton)
Bronze: National
Capitals
4. Waterloo Tigers
5. Georgian Bay Vista (Midland)
6. DRVC (Ashburn)
7. Scarborough Falcons
8. Stingrays (York Region)
9. Aurora Storm
9. DRVC 17U (Ashburn)
11. Toronto Royals
11. South County Bandits (Essex)
13. Forest City (London)
13. Mountain Athletic Club (Hamilton)
15. Stratford Stingers
15. Burlington Blaze
