The Fusion 16U Girls Red headed off to Peterborough for the Feb. 6, 2010 Challenge Cup – Championship East Division this weekend to play some volleyball and to prove our skills.  We were pumped and ready to go. Our first match wasn’t until 11 a.m., so this gave us time to get a bit more shut eye. After a quick team breakfast and pep talk, we headed off to the gym excited to dominate. We had our sights set high but the day didn’t go exactly as we had planned.

Our first match was against a strong Durham Attack Red team. This team had played in Premier Division last year and were planning on doing so this year as well.  They wanted to win just as much as we did.  We came out strong and talkative throughout the first few points but when the score hit 20 for both teams, Durham gave an extra push that we just didn’t have in us. They took the lead and went on to win the game 25-22. After such a close game, we were motivated to come back even stronger in the second and that is exactly what we did by quickly stealing the game away with a strong 25-16 finish.  Since we had each won a game, we headed into the third.  We played hard and powerfully but Durham kept those balls coming back at us - picking up everything we threw at them. Durham came out in the lead at the cross over and our team was unable to come back resulting in a loss at 9-15.

Our second match was to be played against Scarborough Titans Nemesis, an aggressive team with some big hitters.  But this wouldn’t stop us, anything they hit at us we would just have to dig up! We fought hard in the first game with some big blocks and great digs but we struggled on closing the game with a disappointing loss of 18-25. After some bad calls from the ref, our Coach was asked to leave the gym for the next game, but the Fusion girls kept it going trying to defend our court.  Regrettably we just didn’t have it in us to beat this team ending with a loss of 17-25 for the Fusion girls.

Our second last match of the day was against the Peterborough Thunder who came into the tournament from Trillium Division.  The match started off when the referee blew the whistle and everyone began to cheer and scream. It was clear who wanted this more and it was us. We began the match strong and finished it off the same way we started. We had won the first game for the first time that day with a win of 25-12. Our coaches decided to mix things up when they put people in positions that they don't usually play. It was quite the experience for some people. All of the yelling and excitement paid off when we won the second game by an eight point span and a score of 25 - 17.

As the end of the day rolled in we were beginning to feel the effect of our poor pool play and quarter final game.  Although we were all tired and not very happy at that moment, this Fusion Red team had to pull through as a team and battle our last opponent in this tournament. The last team we had to face that day was DRVC who began the day ranked third. As we came directly from our previous game, which was a big boost for everyone, we continued to cheer and at the end of the day we were definitely the loudest. Our first game finished with a win for Ottawa Fusion Red with a score of 25 - 20.  We came out strong in the second with our best game of the day and a score of 25 -10.

Go Red Go!