14U Black at 15U McGregor Cup Jan 17th

14U Black made the short trip to Stouffville to play in the 15U McGregor Cup tournament. Coming off an undefeated weekend at the 14U McGregor Cup everyone was looking forward to an exciting day as the competition would definitely be a lot tougher this weekend.

After a lengthy delay we finally played our first match against Cambridge who had just finished their first match of the day. We definitely came out flat footed and fell behind early. We did our best to mount a comeback but fell short finishing the set with 20 points. The second set was back and forth which we eventually won 25 -23. Unfortunately the tie breaker didn’t go our way as we once again fell behind early and ended the set with 11 points.

Windsor was next and unfortunately our fate didn’t change as we lost two straight scoring 22 & 18 points respectively.

The positive side of the round robin was that we could have easily won both matches. We were nowhere near our best yet we were in all sets. We had a few unlucky breaks which, if went the other way, may have changed the results.

Having finished third we now played second place finisher Ottawa in the crossover game. We played much better in this match but unfortunately came up short scoring 20 & 22 points.

Our final match of the day was against DRVC. It didn’t take long for the girls to realize who they were about to play and the chatter started about never losing to our sister Durham club. After Rob had a lengthy team meeting the girls seemed to come out loose and we having lots of fun. It also became clear that Autumn was disappointed with the cancellation of Canadian Idol so she took it upon herself to audition anyway.

This seemed to spur the girls on and they took the first set in a close one 25-23. The second set wasn’t as close with DRVC only scoring 19 points.

Despite the result it actually was a good day. 15U tournaments would be nice to win, but they are also a time when the team gains a lot of experience playing bigger and tougher teams. It’s also a time when we can experiment with different line ups and strategies and that was certainly happening as well.

Our next tournament is in balmy North Bay where we will have an overnight stay. I'm sure the girls will be pumped up after a night of fun (we can’t wait to hear Autumn perform) and our outcome will be different than the 15U tourney.

all photos...