May 2-4, 2008 - The 16U CAPS had a
great opportunity to participate in a national event this past weekend
as they competed in the 17U/18U Canadian Open in Ottawa.
This event provided the girls with a terrific warm-up for their final
tournament of the year, the 15U/16U Canadian West Open to be
held in Calgary, Alberta May
17-19.
As was the case with all 16U teams
competing in the event, the CAPS were seeded in the 17U Division 2
class. The girls started Friday afternoon against the
Coquitlam Ducks. The CAPS came out strong taking an
early lead in the first set and holding to win 25-14. The second
set was much closer but the CAPS prevailed with a 25-23 win. The
winning continued for the girls against the Waterloo Tigers
with straight set wins 25-9, 25-17. The final match of pool play
saw the CAPS facing the Junior Bison Black from Winnipeg and
again the CAPS prevailed 25-8, 25-21, earning the CAPS a 1st place
finish in FFF Pool.
First up Saturday afternoon was MAC
from Milton. The CAPS continued their strong play of the day
before with a first match victory in straight sets, 25-16, 25-18.
Following a one game break, the CAPS met Titans Synergy 16U for
the third time this season, having split the first two matches.
The first game was point-for-point ultimately resulting in a
Titans victory 25-23. Determined not to chance a third set,
the Titans were aggressive from the first ball in the second set,
winning 25-16.
This set up a very important final match of
the day for the CAPS against Digg iT from Saskatoon. Only
the top two pool finishers would advance to the Division 2/Tier 1
playoffs. The CAPS came out swinging, easily winning the first
set 25-13. But Digg iT was not prepared to go down without a
fight and battled hard in the second set (causing a tremendous amount
of anxiety for CAPS fans!). However the girls maintained their
composure, taking the match with a second set victory,
28-26.
Determining the pool rankings did not prove
easy as Titans Synergy 16U went down in straight sets to MAC setting
up a three way tie for first place. MAC was relegated to the
third position on their won-loss ratio on sets (having gone to 3 with
Digg iT) leaving the ranking to be determined by points. As a
result, the CAPS found themselves in second position with 142 points
"for" to the Titans 144.
The second place pool position saw the CAPS
taking the floor for the quarter-final match on Sunday morning
against Forest City 16U. The two teams had met on three
previous occasions this season with two matches going to Forest City.
It was to be an exciting three set match, with the first going to
Forest City 25-14, the second to the CAPS 25-21 and the third to
Forest City 15-13. This was to be the last match of the
tournament for the CAPS leaving the girls in 5th position in 17U
Division 2/Tier 1.
The event proved to be a tremendous
opportunity for the girls to experience a large scale tournament and
to get a glimpse at what the competition might be like in Western
Canada.
"This was a great building block and a great experience for our
team as a lead-in for National Championships in Calgary," added
Coach Linden. Thanks to volleyball Canada for allowing our team
to participate in this event. The girls now know what the energy
will be like out west." He added, "I'm happy with the
continued progress we have made as a team - we continue to improve
our play as the year goes on. We hope to step it up one more
level in Calgary."
Thanks again to coaches Linden and Bruno
for all of their time and energy.
