May 17-19, 2008 - The 16U CAPS
ended the 07-08 season in style with a trip to Calgary and 15U/16U
Canadian West Open.
Players, coaches and parents arrived in time for the team to practice
at the Olympic Oval on Friday, May 16, the day before the official
start of the competition. The atmosphere at the Oval would prove
to be electric throughout the event. Following practice, the
group took advantage of an afternoon off and traveled to Banff to see
the sites.
As a result of their 7th place finish at
16U Provincials, the CAPS entered the tournament as the 31st seed in
Division 1. This meant the CAPS would face tough competition.
Saturday morning started bright and early with a 7:30 am match against
the Shock from Winnipeg, the defending 15U West National
Champions. The Shock showed their stuff early, taking the match
in straight sets, 25-19, 25-16. (The Shock would go on to win the
silver medal in Division 1). Next up was the Saskatoon
Shazaam. The second match went three sets, the first
to Shazaam (25-20), followed by two CAPS victories (25-16, 15-7).
The final match of the day pitted the CAPS against the Jaguars
from Cochrane. The girls were strong from the first ball earning
straight set wins (25-14, 25-12) and ending the day in second place in
the B pool.
The second place finish moved the CAPS into
the Day 2 power pools with the top 16 teams in Division 1. Day 2
saw the girls facing some familiar opponents in the Scarborough Titans
Synergy and Durham Attack Black, the third and fifth ranked teams out
of Ontario as well as Manitoba's second seeded Storm. Another
7:30 am match found the CAPS on the court against the Durham Attack
Black. As was the case in the last tournament, the CAPS came
out strong against the Attack taking the first set (25-21). But
in the second set something went wrong and the Attack Black sailed to
a 25-8 victory. The CAPS couldn't recover and went down in the
third set by a score of 15-7.
Following a two game break, the CAPS
faced Scarborough Titans Synergy. Things started well
with the set progressing point for point but a big block by CAPS
middle Kayla B-H proved to be game changing when Kayla suffered an eye
injury that sidelined her for the rest of the tournament. (The
great news is that Kayla will recover fully and be on the court again
in no time). The girls quickly adjusted but the Titans proved to
be too much, taking the match in straight sets (25-16, 25-18).
The CAPS faced Storm in the last match of the day and again
were defeated in straight sets (25-18, 25-20 - Storm would go on to
win the Division 1 bronze medal). The 4th place finish in the CC
pool resulted in the CAPS dropping from the top 16 into Tier 3 of
Division 1 for the tournament playoffs.
On the final day of the tournament, the
girls were determined to achieve the best possible finish. First
up was the Queen's Extreme from Red Deer in the Division 1 Tier
3 quarter-final. The first set went to the CAPS (25-18)
followed by a Queen's Extreme victory (25-17). So knowing that
the tournament would end without a victory, the CAPS took the floor
for the all important third set. Although it was close, the CAPS
took the third set 15-11 and progressed to the semi-final against
another familiar squad, Niagara Rapids Black. The
semi-final was to be another three game set with the first going to
the CAPS (25-21), the second to the Rapids (25-22) and the third
nail-biter to the Rapids (16-14). This set up a bronze medal
match against a day one opponent, the Saskatoon Shazaam.
Unlike Day 1, the CAPS did not let this one go to three, taking the
match in two (25-21, 25-19), winning the Division 1 Tier 3 bronze
medal and achieving a 19th place finish of the 112 16U teams in the
tournament.
And so, after 13 tournaments and too many
practices to count, the 16U CAPS ended the season on a high note.
There are many people to thank for all of their support along the way:
to coaches Linden Leung and Bruno Prasil, many thanks
for the hours of time you spent helping the team come together and for
coaching the girls to a successful season; to Rob Hammond,
thanks so much for the memories captured in incredible pictures; merci
beaucoup Janet Bullbrook for coordinating travel, the auction
and the great trip to Calgary which will never be forgotten; hats off
to John Henderson for making sure we had enough money to do all
we needed to do; bravo to all of the 16U CAPS parents, friends and
family for traveling throughout Canada, calling the lines, providing
nutritious snacks and lunches and for cheering the team on; and last
but certainly not least, to each and every one of the 16U CAPS players
who worked hard to create a new team, for welcoming and supporting
each other and for making us proud. Enjoy the summer girls.
See you in September.
