December 8, 2007 - Our six hour
drive to the OVA 18U Girls McGregor Cup - Tier 2 in
Kitchener-Waterloo was not so short, but pretty sweet. Everyone
in our ride was watching movies and getting excited to 'play up'
to our first 18U OVA tournament of the season. We went to bed
early and woke up in time to get to the gym at 9:15, to scope out our
competition before our 10:15 start time.
Our first game was against the #1 seed,
Peel Selects 90. We took the first set by a score of 25-21
and were pretty pumped going into the second. Unfortunately we
lost game #2, but we didn't get down on ourselves. We were up
8-3 at the split of the third set and maintained that lead to finish
strong with a score of 15-8.
Our second and final pool play match was
against Phénix, (8th seed). It was point-for-point for
the first half of the set, but then the CAPS turned it up a notch and
got a big lead, winning with a score of 25-17. The second set
was a nail-biter. We were neck-and-neck for the entirety of the
game, however we were down 21-24 at set point. But some big
blocks and ace serves helped us to pull it off by a close score of
27-25. CAPS are first in their pool and get a bye to the
quarter-finals!!
We had a long break which we used to
refocus and to get a bite to eat. Then it was time for
Interclub from Toronto in the quarter-finals. We stayed
aggressive to win the first set, but let Interclub back in the match
in the second set with a victory. The tiebreaker was pretty
close, but the CAPS pulled through to win 15-12. We're going
to the semis!
We got news of how the 18Us were doing at
their Tier 1 tournament - they played the Kitchener-Waterloo
Predators in their semis and we were matched up with the K-W 17U
team! Coach Matt told us that if the 18Us can beat K-W, so can
we! We had HUGE blocks that game, and won the first set 26-24.
We sat back on our heels a bit in the second set, but we came out
strong in the third with a score of 8-2 at the split. We went on
to take the third set 15-7, following in our 18U sisters'
footsteps. FINALS... HERE WE COME!
We had to face Aurora Storm Typhoon
17U in the gold medal match, another 17U team that had won our 17U
Tier 1 tournament the weekend before. We were feeling pretty
confident with our game coming off our big victory against the
Predators, and our performance in the finals showed it. Our
aggressiveness and determination brought us straight to the gold
medal, after we took the match in straight sets! (25-19,
25-15)
Congratulations girls on a wonderful
tournament. Thanks to Heather Potts for
coming into town to help out Coach Hoey on the bench. Thanks to
all the parents who got us home safely at 3:30 a.m., and
thanks to all the friends and family who lent us their food, hot tubs
and beds on Friday night. Lovin' that gold!!! GO
CAPS!
- Marijke #4
