The club volleyball season is slowly winding down, but the competition has just begun to heat up.
To kick off the two, final, and perhaps, most important tournaments of the season, the U14 Blitz Attack competed in the provincial tournament in Saskatoon April 17-18, and played undoubtedly some of their best games of the season.
The first two games of the tournament were crucial, and strong team play, ball control, and serving carried the Attack through straight sets against the Element Eclipse, but they came up short in the third set of their second game against RVC Voltage Despite dropping two sets out of the combined five they played, the Attack secured second place in their pool, which advanced them to the Tier I pool.
The Blitz took their game against the Element Energy in two, straight sets, but then lost to the defending provincial champions, the Wakaw Warriors, in straight sets.
The girls played strong in both games and, once again, finished second in their pool.The Attack needed to win their first game on Sunday in order to advance to the medal playoffs, losing the first set against SVC only to rally back and take the next two sets for the win.
The Attack wouldn't fair as well in their second game of the day.
Poor serving from the Attack combined with strong hitting by the opposing team sent the Attack to play for the provincial bronze medal. The Ultimate Chaos took the first set, but the Blitz used strong serving and strong blocks to even the score.
Unfortunately, a few mental errors in the third set gave the bronze medal to the Chaos. Despite coming up short in their quest for a medal, Attack coaches Darlene Shymanski and Rolanda Herschmiller could not help but be extremely pleased with their team over the course of the tournament. The past few tournaments had been shaky for the girls, but they recovered nicely and put up an excellent performance at a tournament that mattered.
The coaches were also pleased at the praising and positive feedback that they received not only from opposing coaches, but also tournament officials on the team's high skill and playing ability. It allowed for the team to come away from the weekend strong and proud even though they weren't able to bring home a medal.
The next action for the U14 Blitz Attack is the 2010 Canadian West Open in Saskatoon May 6 - 9.
