Golden Season

The 15U DA Black girls team elevated themselves to another level, Saturday afternoon, in Barrie at the final 15U Tier One Bugarski Cup by capturing yet another Gold Medal, solidifying that this team, without a doubt is indeed the number one ranked 15U team in Ontario. This Gold Medal Win will send them off to the Ontario Provincials as the number one seed, where they hope to win their first of many provincial titles to come.

Although Saturday ended sweet, the day definitely did not start out that way. After the long, cold trek to Barrie to play in the first scheduled game of the day, the girls were stopped dead in their tracks by mother nature. A roof leak emerged on the DA court sending tournament organizers scrambling to change the schedule to a 3 court format.

Despite having to wait to start the day, DA easily captured 1st place in their pool defeating Georgetown Impact 25-15, 25-15 and the Halton Hurricanes 25-16, 25-15 giving them a bye into the quarter finals. The girls definitely showed how talented they are as they certainly did not play to their potential, yet easily defeated their opponents.

The quarter finals had DA playing the Aurora Storm team where they quickly took control of the game to win two decided sets 25-20 and 25-14.

Next up would be another semi final match-up between DA and DRVC and like the previous time, the game would undoubtedly prove to be what spectators would say should have been the Gold Medal match. The first set saw the DA team take a commanding lead of 17-10 but a loss of focus saw their serve reception breakdown and as a result they lost their first set of the year in the 15U division by a score of 25-23. This defeat for DA was an eye-opener for them but it also ignited a fire within the DRVC team and they came out swinging hard in the second set. DA was down 18-12 in the second set and it looked as though the team was about to forfeit their perfect record for the year. After a time out, the girls went back out onto the court and were able to dig down deep and pull out a win of 27-25. Faced with the possibility of not playing for Gold and not going into provincials with preferred seeding, the DA girls turned up the heat and finally, for the first time all day played like the team that had been taking the court all season and quickly took the lead in the third set. At the switch DA led 8-4 and with consistent serving and passing, huge blocking, hard hitting and great digs, DA won the final set 15-6 and would again play for GOLD.

The Gold Medal match was anti-climactic after such an incredibly hard fought semi-final match but the quest for more gold was still foremost on the minds of the DA team as they took the court against the Scarborough Titans. DA played the match with a sense of impending victory having come back in the semi's and they easily defeated the Scarborough Titans in two straight sets 25-14 and 25-20 continuing an AMAZING SEASON for this young and talented team.

This 15U team has done remarkably well this year and yesterday was no exception. This group of girls showed true grit and character, fighting through numerous injuries and sickness to come back and win GOLD. When it counts most, this team demonstrates why they are indeed champions and they once again showed they had the will and desire to dig down deep when it counts and fight for what they believe is rightfully theirs.

Over the next few weeks, this team will not simply be satisfied with our past success, rather the girls will be working hard to improve our overall skills and team play. This is a must, as there is no secret that other teams will certainly be gunning for us at Provincials.

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