17U Girls Win Fourth Straight Ontario Championship

Our 17U girls team went a perfect 14-0 this past weekend in Welland to win their fourth straight Provincial Tier 1 Championship. The girls had solid wins over KW Predators, National Capitals and Forest City in play-offs to bring home the gold. Some teams felt it unfair we were seeded 5th because of our tourney in Las Vegas as it meant we might meet them earlier than they wished. To us it made no difference as we knew that to win we'd eventually meet everyone anyways.

And we did meet almost everyone, and played really solid volleyball the entire tournament, none of our "first set of the day" slow starts. The team was focused and relaxed the entire weekend, had enormous energy on Sunday, and the result was a perfect 14-0 record, our fourth Provincial Championship and Durham Attack's second championship for the 2008 season.

Meet 17U Black... a little video introduction to the crew

17U Black, goofy hats and all - 2008 Ontario 17U Champions

Pool Play

Attack vs. Georgian Bay Vista 25-11, 25-9 - We opened the tournament on Saturday morning against Vista, a small team that relies on serving and defence. They gave us a bit of trouble in the semis at last years provincials. They are really good diggers but just too small to stay with us, once we got warmed up and past the first 6 points or so, we just kept hitting away and scored consistently.

Attack vs. National Capitals 25-23, 25-20 - The Caps were up for this one and played better than we have ever seen them play. We fell behind early in game 1. We were down by 8 by the time we got the Big Red Machine moving and we caught them at the tape 25-23. Second game we also started out slow but caught up and kept going to close out 25-20.

Attack vs. Scarborough Titans 16u 25-15, 25-14 - For the first match of the day we finally came out strong from the start but lost our libero Tayler Mitchell when she hit her head badly going after a tough serve. Tayler went off to the hospital shortly thereafter. No matter, we took it in stride and with Kellie Downing in the white jersey won convincingly 25-15, 25-14.

Crossover

We had a long break and with a few hours on their hands, the girls got to goofing around and playing various games. As you can see they were pretty loose and relaxed, and we shot a bit of video. By the time we took to the court we were ready to go.

Attack vs. Niagara Rapids 25-9, 25-15 - Rapids are one of the stronger 16U teams so we didn't take anything for granted. We came out hitting hard and had a few tough breaks, but after being tied 6-6 we went on a run, hammering the ball from all over the court, and allowing only 3 more points in the process. It was a pretty impressive show of the power the team has when their game is on. The second game was in control and we cruised to a 25-15 win.

We retired to the hotel (Days Inn) which we have to say provided the best service to us we have ever had at a tournament. They were incredibly accommodating. We brought in food for a team dinner in their party room, and after the girls had finished and gone off to bed, we were joined by parents from Aurora and Vista for a few drinks. Chris Williamson (aghast at UNC's loss in the March Madness semi-finals) and Bonnie provided the entertainment.

Play-offs

Quarters - Attack vs. KW Predators 25-15, 25-16 - First game Sunday was against a talented Predators team. The Preds (formerly Waterloo Tigers) gave us a little abuse at last year's provincials, and a run for our money out in Moncton. But holy cow did we have a lot of energy for this one. We had great hitting across the board and tipping that they never seemed to adjust to. They are a big team with great athletes and a lot of talent. (In fact later in the day they would beat Aurora who had designs to challenge us in the semis.) But we were solidly in control of this one and it never seemed to be a question. We ran into the Preds coaches at the end of the day in McDonalds and they have a lot of respect for our girls. As we do for theirs.

Semis - Attack vs. National Capitals 25-16, 25-19 - Over to Niagara College and a new gym to adjust to, where the Caps had just knocked out Aurora Storm. We had a tough match against the Caps on Saturday and expected much of the same. But we were a better team on Sunday, made very few errors, came out hard again and were in total control of set one. Second game was much the same. Caps were digging most of our tips, but our hitting was too strong for them to handle.

Finals - Attack vs. Forest City 25-18. 25-16 - Which took us into the finals against our friends from FC, our perennial foes in the gold medal game. Though FC faltered at the start of the season they have gotten it together and were ready to challenge. Last year we had a very tight, three set nail-biter against them in the finals at provincials. This year we are a stronger team. It was a good match but I think from talking to our girls it was just the final job to get done of the tournament. So they settled down to playing a solid match and rightfully claiming the Provincial Championship for the fourth straight year.

Which is quite an accomplishment when you think of it. The same core team with a change or two each year has managed to stay on top since 14u.

All-stars

At 17U the OVA names an all-star team, instead of the OVA Award of Excellence. All-star status was awarded to Jen Cross at middle, Ali Goc at left side and Jordyn Moloney as setter. Congratulations girls!!! On top of these superb performances the entire team played at that level and were candidates.

A Special Thank-You

A special thank-you to Anne Botica for bringing the girls to this level (but we're not done yet Anne!) And to Chris Williamson for giving up his weekend to assist Anne on the bench. There was a lot going on this past weekend, especially when Tayler was injured, and Chris's assistance was much appreciated. Silly drawings and all, Chris kept the girls lose and relaxed while Anne took care of the technical end of business and kept us dominating on the court. What a potent combo!

Next stop is 18U provincials in Kitchener in two weeks where we have some unfinished business in Tier 1. Seeded 4th after four straight 4th place finishes, we're positioned to medal, which is our next goal of the season.

all photos...