13U White Attacks at McGregor Cup

The first tournament of 2009 took the Girls 13U White team to Brighton on January 24th, for the McGregor Cup.

In the first match against the Akwesasne Soaring Eagles the girls took a commanding lead dominated by solid serving (Holly Linton # 9) and wrapped up the game with a decisive 25-11 win. In Game 2 the girls demonstrated good setting, consistently playing 3 hits on their side and took the game 25-21. A great way to start the tournament!

The second match found the girls pitted against DA Black whose obvious height advantage was going to be a factor. Black took an early lead but the girls put their hearts and heads into the game. During a brief timeout Coach Chris reinforced “the score does not reflect how well you can play” and with that said the girls stepped up their game, fighting hard and delivered some of the tournament’s most exciting rallies. The most memorable moment had to be when #12, Madison Jenkins, delivered a spike that fell to the ground in the middle of our opponents, leaving them speechless. The fans went wild! While the girls lost 12-25, the competition definitely brought out the best in them. Despite a loss in game 2 (13-25), the girls’ efforts did not go unnoticed. The words of the coach re-energized them - ‘you can’t let that match get you down; the first game was amazing! The gap between where they are and where we are will get smaller.”

With renewed confidence DA White met up with DRVC Orange in Match 3. The girls took an early lead and held on to it to take Game 1, 25-15. The girls were strong, confident, cheering and rejuvenated! While Game 2 was much closer, we saw strong serving by Meghan Cook #3 and Hanna Gianatselis #1 and excellent blocking by Taline Sarkisovich #18. The fans were treated to some nail biting rallies and fantastic saves before the girls took the win 25-23.

DA White came in 2nd in Pool B – great job ladies!

In the playoffs the girls first match was against Storm ICE. Despite an early lead and some good defensive plays, ICE overtook the lead and the girls weren’t able to recover. A few costly errors and missed plays saw ICE take Game 1 11-25. Game 2 was close at the start, but the earlier loss had taken the wind out of their sails and unfortunately the girls came up short (13-25).

The last game of the tournament saw the girls play against our DA Red clubmates. The girls played a very tight game from the start and a see-saw battle ensued as each team rallied for the lead. Kiana De La Cruz # 15 delivered on her serves and a great block by Emily Ryan # 7 put White in the lead by a slim 17-16. The girls put on a great display of team play and individual ability before conceding 20-25. In game 2 Kiana dug up some great balls however the game belonged to the Red team with a final score of 12-25 and DA White finished the the McGregor Cup tournament 7th in the standings.

Special thanks to Zach for a great job as linesman, to all the supportive fans from DA White who cheered the girls on through their ups and downs and as always to the Coaches for your undying commitment to help the girls learn and grow.

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