May 12-14, 2007 - The long season
is coming to an end and there was one more big tournament to go -
the VC 15U Canadian East Open in Moncton. After a
turbulent season, things had settled down, spirits were up and the 15U
girls had played well at their two recent Provincial Championships.
As they say, timing is everything, so everybody was looking forward to
the trip and taking on Eastern Canada's best.
The long drive began well enough on
Wednesday, getting stuck in Montreal traffic but making Edmonston in
fine style. The mood was upbeat and jokes were flying. One
of the parents noted "Hey, your rented van's license plate number is
666, you devil! I hope you're not superstitious." That seemed
funny only until the next morning, when coach Singh lost his footing
and managed to bang his ribs on the car door so badly that our arrival
to Moncton was accompanied by a trip to the hospital. That's
when having two coaches paid off in spades. Coach Prasil was
still there to take the team to the opening ceremonies. 126
teams, participating in 14U, 15U and 16U age brackets, marched into
the arena behind their provincial flags - what a great experience for
the girls. Mr. Singh managed to join the team, but the
painkillers had him flying higher than the flags. Talk about
commitment!
The first day of competition saw us start
off against our cross-town rivals, Maverick Stampede. The
girls started a bit slow, but hit their stride by the third game and
got the crucial win. After another win against Power
Storm from NS, the CAPS were assured of moving into Day Two Power
Pools. After checking the results of the other pools, we discovered
our girls would be in with another Ottawa team, Russell Ravens.
We had to drive 1300 km to do this, right? Oh well, let's get
some pizza and rest for tomorrow.
The second day displayed some great
volleyball among the power teams. We played the best Quebec
team, Élans, in our first match and were a bit unlucky to go
down 24-26 in the second game, after being ahead for most of the set.
The girls bounced back to beat Phoenix 2-0, then it was time to
get ready for the Russell Ravens. As usual, the match
produced very entertaining volleyball, with the momentum swinging back
and forth. Both teams fought really hard, even though they were
already assured of advancing to the quarter-finals. As with
every other match between these two teams this year, it went to three
games. This time, the Ravens prevailed and evened the season
series at two apiece.
Afterwards, it was time to relax, do some
sightseeing and get ready for the quarter-finals on Sunday.
Thanks to some expert guidance from the Wolfendens, the girls got a
chance to get wet in the Atlantic, climb all over the giant lobster in
Shediac and take in a nice dinner. The evening ended with some
impromptu CAPS publicity that had the Shediac downtown traffic (all 15
cars) snarled, gave a local young man on a bike problems with his
balance and had the parents in stitches.
In the quarterfinals on Sunday, the girls
faced one of the top teams in Ontario, Scarborough Titans. For
this match the Toronto team was definitely "on" and our girls had
a hard time containing them. Titans served well and their 6'4"
middle dominated the net. The Scarborough team took the match in
two games and that spelled the end of the tournament for the
CAPS.
In the end, it seemed strange to travel to
Moncton to play mainly teams from Ontario and Quebec, but those were
the teams that ended up in the quarter-finals. So we certainly
got our money's worth as far as getting a quality opposition all three
days. And that's what it is all about. You want to end the
season on a high note and the girls certainly did that.
Finishing in a tie for 5th at the Canada East Open is great and I bet
the girls cannot wait to start all over again next year.
Thanks for a great season to our wonderful
coaches, to our Team Managers, to all the parents who spent all that
time and money to make this all happen, and thanks to the girls for
hanging in there and giving us all such an entertaining
ride!
Final Standings/VC 15U Girls Canadian East
Open:
Gold: Durham Attack Black (Oshawa,
ON)
Silver: Élans (Quebec,
QC)
Bronze: Titans Synergy (Scarborough,
ON)
4. Ravens (Russell, ON)
5. National Capitals (Ottawa,
ON)
5. Sackville Sonics A (Halifax,
NS)
5. Phoenix (Amqui, QC)
5. Celtique Rouge (St-Leonard,
QC)
