The 16U Girls Purple started off the New Year with a new look. The team was introduced to their new Head Coach Jonathan Alcombrack. With only two practices with the girls before the tournament, Jonathan and his coaching staff Jim and Lee set out to get the rust off the girls and have them ready for the McGregor Cup in Trenton. The girls were starting off the year in the Trillium Division, ranked 2nd going into the tournament. After a late start due to officials not showing up, the 16U purple team hit the floor. The girls were both nervous and excited to be back on the floor. Coach Jonathan was very nervous and anxious to see what the girls could do. Their first match was against Royal City. The girls came out playing tough. Their serving was the story in this game forcing numerous free balls and capitalizing on every chance they could. Beating Royal City in two sets both 25-21. The smiles and excitement from the girls said it all.

After a short break the girls were back out on the floor against the Clarington Grizzlies 2.
Once again the girls came out ready to play. This game the girls defence really took over with many rallies going closer to 20 or 30 touches. It was exciting to watch. Capitalizing on the unforced errors of their opponents, the girls came out with the win, 25-22. The next game was similar to the last but with the roles reversed. With a few to many service errors the girls lost the second set 25-21. Winning the three games placed us first in our pool.

With 1st place in our pool we faced our sister team the Fusion 15U Girls Red in our first match of playoffs. A very good 15U team walked on to that floor, but the girls took advantage of the unforced errors and beat the 15U Red 25-13. A little over-confident going into the next match, the girls missed their first 4 serves of the game. The 15U Red took advantage of this and went out into the lead. The game wasn’t over but the girls were down 22-16. They pulled together like good teams do and fought back to 22-21.  The game ended 25-21 for the 15U Red, forcing a 3rd game. In the third, we saw a great back and forth battle.  The 15U Red went up 11-8 and something happened that changed all the momentum of the game. The girls were called for being out of rotation.  The wrong server had gone back to serve.  She did serve an ace but that put the 15U Red up by four and the girls fought for three more points but that wasn’t enough and they lost a close one 15-11.

With that loss we were now playing for 5th place. The girls had poured their hearts out all day and with the delay in the morning our last game didn't start until 7:45 pm. The girls were tired. The last match was against a much taller DRVC team. Game number one - every girl went all out for this one and we defeated DRVC in a tight unforgiving match 26-24. After that game, the girls tanks were empty and DRVC came back and won the last two 25-14 and 15-3. A glance into the future of things to come in February.  The Coaches and parents were very proud of all the hard work and improved enthusiasm of the girls.

Thanks to coach Jonathan, Lee and Jim for all their hard work and to all the parents who came out to support the girls.
We are looking forward to successes to come in the next OVA tournament in February.