January 26, 2008 - It was an
entertaining weekend for the 17U Girls, playing up to 18U Tier 1 for
the first time at the OVA 18U Girls Challenge Cup. After
our fantastic gold medal win at the 18U Tier 2 tournament in
Kitchener, it was going to be (at the very least) an educational
experience, showing the extraordinary calibre of play we will have to
get accustomed to! The results don't reflect all of the great
plays we made, holding our own against the majority of the teams, but
falling short in points.
The usual long drive up was preceded by a
few exams, and time off was needed. I hope everyone stopped for
some good ol' JBCs at Wendy's? Friday night the girls settled
into their respective hotels and billets. Our Saturday morning
was a fairly early start, facing the #3-ranked team in the province,
the Kitchener-Waterloo Predators 18U, at 9. With us off
to a slow start, the Predators eventually took both sets, 25-19 and
25-15.
Our next opponents were the Pakmen
17U. Taking advantage of Becca's tough and intimidating
serving at the back, we gained a lead of 9-5. Unfortunately,
Pakmen caught up at 11s and made it to 14. But we fought back!
With some great recoveries by Jorie and Max, we continued the close
battle. Becca zoomed back for another streak of serves and we
pulled ahead at 22. Lauren earned us the game point with a
sneaky little dump, finishing the set at 25-23. Fuming, the
Pakmen came back hungry (like their name) and, though we were
well-matched, they seemed to constantly have a few points on us.
Some key notes from this set were: a beautiful hit by Steph to start
off the set, kills by Laura, a big block by Britdawg and Becca's
legendary back quick. (Where did she even come from?!)
Pakmen took the set 25-18. The third set stayed tight, 6-6, then
8-8, with each team pulling ahead by a mere point at a time.
When Pakmen took serve at 14-13, it was quite the exciting rally...
but they nabbed the win of the set, 15-13 and ultimately, the
match.
Crossover: Forest City 18U.
Before the match, Becca started getting feverish and was clearly not
going to be able to play - oh no! Once again, a very close
game, we battled and rallied back and forth to keep a close lead,
despite passing errors. (Thankfully they made some too!) A
timeout at game point gave the girls a breather and the parents heart
attacks - but it did the trick. Leah got a beautiful tool and
the game ended once again at 25-23 for us (ring a bell?). We
accomplished some tough kills and fixes and Marijke had a nice
tip/kill, but Forest City was unstoppable. They took the set
25-16 (but at least the scores are perfect squares). Another
third set! Marijke and Steph ran their quicks, we showed our
stuff but couldn't quite get up to the double digits and lost the
set.
Now, playing for 9th or 11th place (with
the loser heading back down to Tier 2), we ironically met our older
CAPS 18U teammates on the court, also decked out in all black -
you could barely tell us apart! It was just like Thursday nights
at St. Pat's, but we were down to 10 players and the 18Us were down to
7! We got an early lead on our CAPS sisters, but with a huuuuuge
comeback, they narrowly beat us to 25. Second set started with
an early lead that slowly diminished until the teams were tied at
around 13. An unfortunate lineup incident caught us off guard
and playing new positions - that was fun - but didn't help our
scores. It did let Brit get a sweet roof in the middle though.
The 18Us gained some severe pointage and won again, this time 25-18.
But no hard feelings - we'll see ya next
Thursday!
Thanks to the billets, the coaches and the
parents for giving their weekends to us. Special mention goes to
our ridiculous number of pancakes in a row (even Lauren playing it off
the ground and pretending it was up) and to that poor girl on the next
court over who got nailed in the head by Lauren throwing back a
gameball! Thanks ladies and have great exams! Get well
soon Robyn! See you all in Cleveland!
- Kaleigh #6
