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15U-Navy: “Hometown Proud” in Orleans
(PHOTOS)
By John Ruttle, with photos by Christine Havey
February 7, 2009 — Navy's first hometown tournament, the OVA 16U Girls Challenge Cup Trillium Zone D, was a story of mistake and redemption, good fortune and kindness.
Of course, none of this happened on the volleyball court.
The girls, hoping to give Matt a solid performance on his birthday, had another treat planned. Tori prepared cupcakes for the team to eat during a break – each cupcake marked clearly with the players’ numbers. Just before the big surprise – the shock of watching another team unwittingly polish off the goodies at the next table! What might have appeared to be an act without honour turned out to be (of course) an honest mistake. Our friendly rivals very generously scrambled to fix the misunderstanding, buying Matt a birthday cake before the CAPS’ final match! (Equally charming was hearing our rivals sing “Happy Birthday”, then stalling at the part of the song where one actually has to know the name of the birthday boy!)
The good fortune came to Pam on Saturday, when she won the tournament’s 50-50 draw. What did Pam do with her $55 winnings? She donated it back to the team. Many thanks to Pam for her continued commitment to the team, and for her act of kindness with her winnings.
On the court, Navy came out fast with two quick wins over the Ganaraska Wolves (25-12, 25-23) and Ravens 16U (25-15, 25-12). Navy fell to Knights VC (19-25, 17-25) in the last match of pool play.
Joy returned to the team for the first time in several weeks, after recovering from an ankle injury. She had a worrying collision with Kimmy during pool play, and rolled over on her ankle once again. She was unable to play for the rest of the tournament but, thankfully, the injury was not as bad as first feared.
Navy established a strong presence in their first match of the playoffs, quickly defeating Astros 16U (25-15, 25-15). The win gave Navy a shot at playing for a medal, needing first to get past Durham Attack 15U Red, but our CAPS fell short (21-25, 17-25).
That set up a dramatic bronze medal match against the hometown rival Mavericks Trailblazers, against whom Navy has had close matches in the past. The first set showed Navy’s best – strong serves, great passes and hits in a lopsided win (25-14). Tables were turned however in the second set, with Navy giving back too many free balls, and dropping the set (15-25). An ominous end to the last set saw Navy drop the tiebreaker by a mark of 14-16 – the same score as against the Mavericks at the last tournament.
Still, the effort was good enough for 4th. A strong result for a team that’s getting used to the pace of playing up at 16U. Congratulations girls, and thanks to Coach Hoey and to all the friends and family who came out to support the team.
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