What We've Been Up To Lately! Quick Links Story by Gerald Parent; photos by Craig Taylor, Julie Lefaive and Sue Menezes :all articles :photo gallery :2005-2006 team The last three months have been great for the 13U White team.  Practices continue to go well, and we’ve been to three successful tournaments in that time. The first tournament was on November 25th, the Provincial Cup.  The girls played some tough matches in pool play, facing their 13U Black clubmates, the Akwesasne Soaring Eagles, and finally Northumberland Storm.  The girls fought hard in all matches, and entered the playoff round with a keen eye to a possible medal.  They fell to DRVC Blue in the first round of the playoffs, but then fought back hard to end up in 5th place overall.  This was a great start to the tournament schedule for the year! The next event for us was the McGregor Cup, on December 16th. Much to our surprise, the White team went into the zone as the top ranked team, which was very exciting for the girls.  Again, an exciting pool play round ended with the girls winning all of the matches in pool play, and being well positioned for the playoffs.  The girls then played a good close match against Pegasus to win in the first round of playoffs, but unfortunately fell in the next round to DRVC Orange in two hotly contested and exciting sets.  The girls then faced Northumberland Storm in the Bronze Medal match, and prevailed to win their first (and hopefully not last) medal of the season, joining their Black and Red 13U clubmates as medal winners!  Needless to say, we had a pretty excited group of players on our hands! The last of the tournaments that we’ve played in to date was the 14U Hawkins Cup this past weekend, January 20th.  The team was a little nervous going into the tournament, perhaps in awe of the girls that they would be facing.  They rose to the challenge, and played every match with heart and determination, facing both the 14U teams and the other 13U teams with confidence and a positive attitude.  The girls stuck to their game, and there were numerous examples of excellent passing, setting and spiking through the day, and even some key blocks at the net!  All in all the experience for the girls was awesome, and it was rewarding to see their confidence come out on the court.  At the end of the day, they finished in 9th place, an excellent finish for this young team! We now look forward to next weekend’s Challenge Cup in Brighton, the first “road trip” for our team.     All photos... © copyright 2006 Durham Attack Volleyball Club