15U Red Go 4 and 2 at 16U Provincials

Durham Attack U15 Red carried their U15 Ontario Championship momentum into the 2008 U16 Championships this past weekend. Attack Red entered the Tier 3 Etobicoke event seeded 14th.

Special congratulations are extended to Meghan Ladd who was awarded the 2008 U16 Award of Excellence at the tournament. Meghan’s infectious optimism and unwavering commitment continually brighten our practices and games. Combined with her skills and determination, Meghan is very deserving of the award.

Pool Play

First thing Saturday morning Attack Red faced the third seeded Titans Soul…the U15 Provincial Championship fifth place finishers, who we had not beaten all season. Our focus on mental toughness and team play paid off as we stunned our opponents with a 3 game victory. After dropping the first game, Attack Red fought hard to win Game 2, 26-24. We continued to serve hard and take the game to Soul winning the tie-breaker 15-12.

Match 2 pitted U15 Red against the sixth seeded Georgian Bay Vista, a tall U16 team. Attack Red exuded confidence and camaraderie as we took the floor. We decided to try our hand at 5:1 and continued our focused, hard hitting and aggressive play winning in 2 games straight. Attack Red kept the Vista on their heels the entire match and thrilled the crowd with several huge hits and stuffs at the net.

Match 3 was against the South County Bandits Black who were seeded 11th. Having watched the Bandits in the previous match, our scouting paid off and Attack Red exploited the opportunities the Bandits gave us. Our defense was exceptional and team spirit soaring as Attack won 27-25 and 25-17.

Cross-Over

After a 3 hour wait and several trips outside to get some much needed fresh air, the final match of the day was the all-important cross over against the Niagara Rapids U16. Attack Red had played their hearts out, with at times, only one sub on the bench while the Rapids had just lost a tight nail biter and were pumped. Quite simply, we ran out of gas but still put up a valiant effort in losing 22-25 and 19-25. Regardless, Attack Red had a phenomenal day and proved to ourselves that we could play with the top teams in U15 and many U16 teams.

Play-offs

After a lengthy delay, our match got under way at 11:30. We were pitted against the 15th seeded Twin Bridges Thunder, another tall U16 team. Attack Red started off slowly, losing the first game 26-28, even though there were many lead changes. Attack Red hit the floor for Game 2 with renewed energy and employing our newest cheer. We played inspired defense and drove the ball through the taller Thunder blockers to win Game 2, 25-21. After spotting the Thunder a seemingly insurmountable 4-12 lead in the tie breaker, Attack Red dug deep and fought back to take final game 16-14. This was an amazing come back and typified our commitment to each other, team spirit and belief in our ourselves. The coaches and parents were unbelievably proud of our athletes.

Our final game seemed anticlimactic as we were once again facing the Vista team. Our game motto was “and now for something completely different”. We changed our system and positioning in a pre-nationals experiment. Playing a 5:1 with players in un-familiar positions, we played the Vista to a respectable 24-26 loss. Game two we again experimented and almost pulled out a victory, eventually succumbing to a 19-25 defeat.

Attack Red played Saturday with 8 players and 9 on Sunday. We fought through several bouts of flu-like symptoms, which further depleted our bench. Attack Red should be very proud of their accomplishment.

This tournament was another milestone on our relentless journey to play the game we love at the highest possible level. Our mental toughness and aggressiveness continue to improve and we are eagerly looking forward to Moncton.

All photos...