April 28-29, 2007 - After many
tough practices, and so many trips to the greater Toronto area, the
weekend of the OVA 16U Girls Ontario Championships/Tier 1 had
finally arrived. Tier 1 Provincials were held at Jacb Hespeler High
School in Cambridge and the CAPS, seeded 5th, were determined to play
our hearts out.
Day One started late on Saturday morning
with our first game against the 12th seed, MAC, from Hamilton.
With a good pep talk on Friday night at the hotel (just up the street
from the gym), and a long sleep, we were ready for a full day of hard
volleyball action against the best players in Ontario.
Unfortunately, we got off to a sluggish start in the first set, but
managed to pull through and win 25-17. In the second game, MAC
came out a bit harder, but still didn't get through us or Rebecca's
face! (She had to sit out a couple points after roofing a girl
with her eye!) We finished that set 25-20.
Game #2 was against Aurora Storm
Typhoon, who was seeded 13th, but we knew we were in for a tough
match. Storm, seemingly the underdogs, came out hungrier for the
top place in the pool and caught us back on our heels. We lost
the first set 18-25. Coming out with more enthusiasm, we made
Storm struggle. Despite strong efforts and many long rallies,
the CAPS fell just shy of victory in the second game, losing
21-25.
The last pool play match was against the
4th seed (and quite large) Waterloo Tigers White. Wow
were these girls tall at the net! We went into this game with a
different frame of mind after an inspiring "Team" talk from Marg,
who reminded us of our successful teamwork from 17U Provincials.
With huge blocks from both sides and big hits, the Tigers came out on
top, winning 25-18. The next game, the CAPS worked much smarter,
louder and really played like a team, but Waterloo prevailed by a
tight score of 25-23.
Finishing third in an obviously very strong
pool, meant we played the second place team in the dreaded cross-over
game to determine whether we were to be in the top eight or bottom
eight. This matched us up against Durham Attack Red.
All the girls fought through their end-of-the-day fatigue, didn't miss
any serves and finished the first set 25-18. Our weapon of
choice was tipping, scoring many times in their holes, forcing Attack
to stay on their toes. Obviously hungry and very anxious to get
back to the hotel, we played inspired volleyball, proving the bottom
eight just wasn't going to happen this year. We once again
missed very few serves, made great executions and declared ourselves
top eight in Ontario by a score of 25-15. We finished at a good
hour, which gave us lots of time to shower and enjoy a nice sit-down
team dinner at Crabby Joe's. We even caught some of the
Sens game. But the definite highlight was the garlic cheese
bread (although the pepper milk was right up there too)!
Everyone went back to the hotel feeling
very full and ready to focus on volleyball. Our team meeting
allowed us to get pumped for championship Sunday. I don't think
anyone had trouble reaching some deep REM that night. Lucky for
us, we had another sleep-in because our quarter final game wasn't
until 11:20! We had a nice team breakfast together and walked to
the gym, determined to give Durham Attack Black, the defending
champions, a good game. We came out really strong and loud, with
a 6-1 lead. We were neck-and-neck the whole way until the end,
making them play their best. It was great volleyball, with
hustle, spark, confidence and positive attitude, but the set ended
with Attack only 4 points ahead of us. The final score was
21-25. We lost some confidence in the second set and our
serve-receive slipped a little bit. It was a shorter game,
Durham coming out on top, 25-14. But we can be happy that we
played the best volleyball of the year, forcing them to work hard to
earn their spot in the top four.
But our tournament wasn't over - we still
had two more games to play, and our goal was to finish fifth. We
accomplished our first goal when we beat Forest City Blue, in
three games. After playing them in an exhibition game in Ottawa
earlier in the year, we underestimated them and lost the first game
14-25, with a serious mid-set let-down and a run on their side of 11
points in a row. The second game, we came out much stronger and
only had a temporary pause in the game when Jorie got the ball stuck
in the basketball apparatus. The look of guilt on her face was
ridiculous! We stayed focussed and finished that game 25-19.
The third game was a bit closer than we had hoped, but we still came
out with a 15-12 win and a guaranteed shot at 5th or 6th in the
province.
Our last game of the day was a second
chance for revenge against Aurora Storm Typhoon, who we'd lost
to in our pool play earlier that weekend. With strong net play,
more long rallies and really good defence, we gave them a much better
game. The end result was a close 24-26 loss. The second
game wasn't as good, as we lost in a shorter match, 25-14 - not the
greatest conclusion to the tournament, but these are the games you
quickly forget after such a successful weekend, playing the best
volleyball we've ever played! The tough practices and extra
tournaments finally paid off. We went in seeded 5th, came out
6th in Ontario and we couldn't really ask for too much
more.
Everybody played amazing and I'm so proud
and lucky to be playing with such an amazing group of girls. I
love you all! Leah, you had some amazing hits down the line, as
usual, and pretty much hitting everything from every direction it
came. And I guess I forgive you for putting pepper in my milk!
Becca, you are such a rock, so consistent and smart. You always put
the ball in the court and straight down whenever we need you.
Robynos... somehow you always seem to score on your huge blocks
and amazing steps. Sorry my butt was a little sore this weekend
and needed a massage. Marijke, you did some solid volleying and
bumping and even some spiking - just don't scratch me with your
toenails so much in bed... you better have cut them! Laura, your
crazy digs (that I just don't understand how you got) and countless
kills blow me away. Kales, you knew exactly when to regroup and
brought out your rocket float serves, and even some power hitting at
the key points. Kathleen, even though you take some pretty weird
pictures sometimes (downs), your lefty middle hits that always score
were unbelievable. Teal, my roomy for the weekend, you pulled
out your killer serves at exactly the right spot at the time we needed
you most. Jorie, you crazy girl, had some amazing ups and
touches, fixes and saves and even put up some beauty sets. Chris
and Matt, thanks for being such amazing coaches, dealing with these
crazy girls the entire weekend. You always called timeouts at
the perfect time, knowing exactly what to say. You guys are the reason
we are where we are. We literally couldn't do it without you.
And parents, thanks for driving us, yet another time, to the far away
land and for cheering your heads off!
Overall, it was an amazing weekend, but the
season is not quite finished... the best part of the year is yet to
come. Western Nationals are coming really soon. I can
hardly wait! Calgary, here we come!
- LAUREN #11
Editor's Note: Whether to use or not use flash was an
issue all weekend, thus the varying results below. Were we in a
yellow gym... or was it beige?
