Earlier this month, our BYVC 18U team finished off their season and for some, finished off their club volleyball careers, representing Brantford-Brant at the Volleyball Canada National Championships in Calgary, AB.
The team came into the tournament in Division 3, seeded 15/32 in their division.
The tournament started with a practice day on May 17th – where the girls were required to become quickly accustomed to the facility, the Olympic Oval.
After a good practice, the girls were fired up to make their mark in Calgary.
On Day 1, the team had a slow start dropping the first set of the tournament (20-25) but showed fight to take the 3-set victory over Park Girls 18U (Edmonton, AB). The second game was another slow start, and despite the Tornado effort, the team came up short in a 2-set loss to the resilient and disciplined defense of Apex Xplosion (Vancouver, BC). The team finished their day and improved their match record to 2-1 when they defeated the QCVC Royal Purple (Regina, SK) in a hard fought 2-set victory. It was a bittersweet day because despite their 2nd place finish in the pool, the team knew that they were able to play more efficiently. Their goal was to continue with the momentum into Day 2 working as a solid unit.
Results:
W vs. Park Girls: 2-1 (20-25, 25-11, 15-5)
L vs. Apex Xplosion: 0-2 (24-26, 21-25)
W vs. QCVC Royal Purple: 2-0 (25-12, 25-21)
On Day 2, The team was re-pooled and came in as the 4th seed in their pool. The Power Pools of Day 2 were not kind to the Brant Tornadoes. After a quick loss in the first set (14-25) of the day to Bandits (Winnipeg, MB), the team seemed to be playing distracted and defeated. During the second set, outside hitter, Quinn McLeod sustained a tournament-ending ankle injury. She would be out for the rest of the tournament, but thanks to the determination and flexibility of the team, namely Lucia Ausman, who had to make the quick transition from Right Side to Outside Hitter, the team was able to put up a good fight to come back but ultimately lost to the Bandits in the second set (24-26) too. The team and the coaches needed to adapt quickly and made some changes to position the team but unfortunately, the team lost their second match of the day in 3 sets to the Jr. Cascades Summit (Abbotsford, BC); they put up a good fight but just were not able to finish. Finally, the team would not be able to take a set off their next opponents either and lost in 2 sets to LVC Kodiaks (Lethbridge, AB). With a 0-3 match record of the day, the team was moved to D3T2 for Playoffs.
Results:
L vs. Bandits: 0-2 (14-25,24-26)
L vs. Jr. Cascades Summit: 1-2 (12-25, 25-22, 14-16)
L vs. LVC Kodiaks: 0-2 (23-25, 12-25)
The team went into Day 3 feeling supported and encouraged by their fans back in Ontario. Thanks to the livestreaming of Kelly Lawlor, our fans at home were able to follow along on this very important, last day of Nationals.
The first match was against JCVC Crossfire (Saskatoon, SK). The tornadoes were determined and came out strong to advance to the semi-finals. The team was playing a little more efficiently but needed to be on their A-game if they wanted to be in medal-contention.
Results: W vs. JCVC Crossfire: 2-0 (25-16, 25-18)
Their semi-final match was against IVC, the provincial team of Prince Edward Island. The girls played hard but IVC beat us to the punch with some strong right-side attacks. The second set, the girls needed to leave it all on the court. After having been down 13-20 in the second set, the girls were able to rally to come back to 21-22. However, IVC had a more consistent game and eventually defeated BYVC, 25-22. This ended the tournament for the team.
Results: L vs. IVC: 0-2 (19-25, 22-25).
The coaching staff is proud of the tenacity of the team, to be able to overcome and rally to not go down without a fight. To the athletes who are graduating and moving on, thank you for choosing to play your last season with the Brant Tornadoes. It was a pleasure to have coached and have gotten to know such a group of talented young athletes like no other.
The team finished the tournament tied for 3rd in Division 3, Tier 2. They improved their initial seeding from 15/32 to 11/32 in the division and from 79/152 to 75/152 in Canada. With this result, the team finished in the top half of the country.