The 14U Girls headed to Kitchener / Waterloo on Thursday, April 15th for their Provincial Championships. After a good night sleep, the girls drove to RIM Park and won all 3 of their matches of the day.  Being the only team who hadn’t lost yet placed us first in our pool. We went back to the hotel, had a nice swim and a team dinner at a local Chinese Buffet Restaurant, the Mandarin.

On day 2 of Provincials, we had a devastating start, losing our first match to Leaside Lightning in 2 sets (22-25 and 19-25).  We got back and won our next 2 matches against the Black Bandits (25-18 and 25-16) and the Elites (25-13 and 25-19). That day we tied for first in our pool.

Our last day of Provincials was nerve-wracking but also very exciting. We had a good start winning our first 2 matches. The girls then had a break and had a bit of snacks. We had a bit too much bread which cost us our first game in the next match against Leaside (8-25). During the second game we were losing 19-7, but with great serves from Rebekah and Thara we came back and won 25 to 22. This match headed to a 3rd set and we were determined to win because this game would take us to the gold medal match. We were up 14-5 when Myranda set it to Thara who made a great hit but got blocked by the Lightning’s. Thara dug the ball and it flew out of bounds but a great hustle by Myranda put it higher up into the air which gave time for Caroline to sprint across the court, pass it from behind the back line and put it just over the net… GAME POINT.  We  continued on to the gold medal match against the North Bay Blizzards who had come into the tournament ranked in first place, one spot higher then us.  We wanted this, believed in ourselves and took the match in 2 games (25-19 and 25-18).

The team took a picture with Prime Minister Steven Harper who had attended the tournament to watch his son, and went to the gym to receive our GOLD medals. WAY TO GO GIRLS! First gold of the season and it was at Provincials.

Many thanks to the parents who made up some great cheers for us. A HUGE thank-you to Louis and Julie, who made it all possible by training us since September and devoting their time to help us achieve our goals.

IMMA BE, IMMA BE, IMMA BE… a GREAT volleyball player.