14U Girls Win Silver at Hawkins Cup

14U Black made the short trip to Newmarket on February 21st and came home with the Silver Medal.

The day started out against Storm Blast and it was evident after the first serve that this was going to be our match. Everything from passes to sets to hits was clicking and in the blink of an eye the first set was over with a 25-13 victory. The second set was a little closer but the outcome was never in doubt with the girls rolling to a 25-17 victory.

After a short break our next opponent was Barrie Elites Black. They were seeded fifth and we were seeded fourth so many thought this would be a very close match. I don't think the girls thought this because they came out on fire and easily won the first set 25-11. Barrie isn't the type of team to give up and although the second set was closer, the outcome was never in doubt as the girls rolled to a 25-22 victory.

Finishing first in our pool gave us a bye in the first playoff round and then we were back on the court against our sister club 14U Red in our dreaded cross over game. Once again the girls came out on fire and built up a quick 9-1 lead eventually winning the set 25-12. The second set started out a lot different and before we knew it we were behind 18-13. There was a quick time out and I'm not sure what was said, but it was obviously the right thing because the team stormed back winning the set 25-18.

We were on a roll and we were now up against the number one seeded Storm Twister. Storm was just finishing their match which ended up being protested so we had a 60 minute delay while the officials sorted out the mess. Storm was seeded number one for a reason. They have some great hitters who can also dig balls off the back line. The delay gave Rob time to disseminate a strategy down to the girls and once we finally started the strategy was executed flawlessly. The team kept the ball away from their key players while continuing their great passing and hitting. The first set was over before we knew it with a 25-19 victory. Storm made some adjustments in the second set but it wasn’t enough as we came out ahead with our eighth straight victory of the day 28-26.

Now we were on to the gold medal match against our friends from DRVC. We had just beaten them the previous Saturday so confidence levels were high. This match can be chalked up to something as simple as “one of those matches”. From the outside looking in we certainly played better than they did, but we didn’t come out on top of the scoreboard. Our hitting and passing was good but it seemed that DRVC found a way to get it back over the net and then we made too many errors. We lost in two straight sets scoring 22 & 21 points. Full marks go out to DRVC and we can certainly hold our chins high because we played a great match.

Silver isn't quite Gold, but the day was a successful one and a good time was had by all.

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