14U Red at 15U Provincial Cup

On November 29th the Girls 14U Red team traveled to Barrie to play in our first tournament of the season. The girls certainly seemed pumped to start the matches and to get an idea of how we matched up against some older competition.

The first match of the day was against the Orillia Suns 15U team and our girls certainly held their own and gave the Orillia team all they could handle, losing the match by scores of 21-25 and 23-25. Following the match the girls had a chance for a little break and to get some light snacks before getting back to play against the Northern Chill 15U team.

Once again the girls proved to be up to the challenge and gave Northern Chill a bit of a scare, losing the match by scores of 18-25, 29-27, and 12-15 in the tiebreaker set. Despite the definite size advantage that Chill had, our girls weren't intimidated and played well, with hustle and humour.

We then went right into our next and final match of pool play against the Barrie Elites 15U Black team and yet again the girls played well and put up a good fight against a much taller and stronger team, losing in two sets by scores of 21-25 and 22-25. During the second set of the match the girls were clearly tired and in need of some food and rest, but they toughed it out and made it a tight match right to the end.

At this point the team had a break and it was time for some lunch and a bit of a rest before the re-pool matches began. The buffet provided by the parents was amazing and quite the envy of the other teams - some of whom even asked if we were selling and seemed very interested in the pasta, meatballs, salads and fresh fruit we had. I even had one player from another team ask if we could "adopt" her so that she could join us for lunch ! Once the girls finished eating, it was a chance for them to spend some time together, laughing, telling scary stories and talking about what else ? . . . . boys, of course !

After a long break it was finally time to get back to playing volleyball, with our final two matches in the re-pool. The girls had been progressively playing better through the day and seemed excited to get back on the court. Some of the girls were even intrigued by the particular "style" of Darin, the referee for our final two matches. Of course, many of the mothers on the team also found Darin's style particularly interesting (you know who you were !). Despite these distractions, the girls played very well to end the day, defeating in convincing fashion the taller and stronger Barrie Elites 15U Blue team 25-11 and 25-11 and then similarly defeating the Georgian Bay Vista 15U team 25-14 and 25-16.

Many of the girls played very well during the day; there are certainly things the team needs to work on, however, their performance suggests many good things to come and an exciting season ahead.

Coach Mark

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