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16Us finish Nationals in Calgary with a BANG!
(PHOTOS)
By Victoria Taylor, with photos by the Normands and Ariff Dawoodjee
May 14-18, 2009 — After training hard all year, it was hard to believe that Nationals was just around the corner. On May 14th all the CAP girls were pumped up to leave for Calgary and the Volleyball Canada 16U Canadian West Open. With just a few surprises, we made it safely by plane to Calgary. We got used to the time change quickly in Alberta and went to bed early.
On Friday morning we went to practice to adapt to the huge Oval!!! I’d have to say that it’s huge and noisy! After a short practice the team drove an hour and a half to experience the wonders of Banff. After almost two hours of the girls having a shopping spree, we decided to go up the Gondola and experience the real glory of Alberta – the Rocky Mountains! After some amazing photos and good laughs we headed back to the hotel to get ready for why we really came to Calgary... to play volleyball and have fun!
We had two goals for the weekend: to prove to Volleyball Canada that we deserved to be in Division 1, and to bring home the National Div. 2 banner!
On Saturday we started off on the right track. The first match was against Victoria Chargers – we seemed to start the game slow but then we picked up and won by scores of 25-18, 25-17. The next game we played was against Cochrane Jaguars. Our volleyball level picked up and we won in two: 25-13, 25-18. The third game we played against JCVC Red from Saskatoon. The rallies were getting better, but we needed to complete three sets to win the game – scores: 25-18, 23-25, 15-11. We came first in our pool since we won all of our matches and we kept our goal of staying in Tier 1.
After all the volleyball was done, a scavenger hunt was planned. We had fun working in teams completing funny tasks. On Sunday morning we started again in the early morning with a match at 7:30 AM against Fog Wild from Edmonton. It would be our first official day playing at the Oval. We sailed through the game by scores of 25-15 & 25-22. The next game we played BCO Red, winning 25-18, 25-16. The final game of the day we played LVC Kinesis from Lethbridge. We had some decent rallies with this team as they played good defence, but with our consistency and strength, we won 25-22, 25-10 – and yes, we were still holding our own in Tier 1!
After volleyball was done f we headed back to our hotels and then to dinner at Milestones. At dinner we celebrated Shannon’s birthday one day early! (Happy sweet sixteen!)
On Monday morning we woke up later than usual and ate delicious food from room service because all the restaurants were closed with it being the Victoria Day holiday. A little expensive, but we are worth it, right team! At around 9:30 we headed to the Oval knowing what we had to accomplish; win or go home. We knew there was only one option, win!
Our first game of the day was against Junior Bison Rampage from Winnipeg. The girls knew we could not play a slow pace game in the playoffs, so, with some great hits and digs, we won (25-15, 25-10) and headed to the semis against Rage from Virden, Manitoba. The first set was close with some errors made by us... score 25-23. But in the next set we pulled up our socks by not letting them even come close to winning, 25-13! In the finals we played FVVC Black from Langley. In the first game we got out played and lost 17-25. Our team decided to get rid of our nervous jitters and accomplish our goals! With some great hits, sets and passes, we won the next two sets 25-17 and 15-8. After 12 long tournaments, we had started and ended the season with a banner, and “YES”, we ended the season on a very high note – Div. 2 National Champions!! We did it!!!
There are tons of people to thank but most of all we would like to thank all the parents for their huge time commitment and support just to let us play the sport we love the most – volleyball! We would like to also say a huge ‘thank you’ to Linden and Devon for all their support, coaching, and time! 16U CAPS, it was an amazing year! See you in September and have a great summer!
— Victoria Taylor #16
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