The Junior Girls Volleyball team was on the road this weekend at St. Michaels University School in Victoria, BC for the ISA Tournament. Upon arrival at SMUS, the team immediately noticed the impressive entry gate, an expansive field and boys!
The Tigers started off the tournament against a less experienced Glenlyon-Norfolk Secondary. With the consistent serving of Marissa, the Tigers took the first set 25-1. GNS played stronger in the 2nd set but the Tigers stayed focused and won 25-19 to end the match. Brentwood College was the next opponent, and with more experienced players offered better competition for the girls. Again, strong, consistent serving by Marissa boosted the team score. Louise also served well and played really well in the front row. With great team play, the Jr. Volleyball team won 25-13 and 25-20 to clinch first place in their pool!
The luxury of placing first in their pool had the team playing Saturday morning quarter finals against Mulgrave Secondary from North Vancouver. In this match, the serving of our setters Lauren and Isabelle combined to score 20 points in this two set victory. Along with their great serving, both girls worked extremely well together setting up their hitters for a total of 11 kills!
Moving on to the semi-finals against LMISSGVA league rival Crofton House, it was the match up of the weekend for the Tigers. This match would determine if the team advanced to the Gold or Bronze medal match. Starting off with high energy and strong serving, the Tigers went ahead early in the set but Crofton House picked up their game to take the lead late in the game and win in two sets. The team worked through adversity to finish with high energy and positivity.
Moving on to the Bronze medal match was quick and the Tigers did really well at putting the loss to Crofton House behind them and focus on the next team, Brentwood College. Having already played this team in the round robin gave the Tigers the confidence needed to step in and take the first set. The second set was more of a fight for the girls with Brentwood taking the lead until the girls settled in and with discipline and hard work, collectively coming back point by point. With the last few points of the game being very exciting with rally after rally and good play by both teams, the girls cheered and jumped round hugging each other when they deservedly won the BRONZE MEDAL!
Consistent play by Louise, Lauren, Marissa and Ishira helped propel the team to rise above the competition the entire weekend. As for the rest of the team, each girl contributed greatly to help win match after match. Erin had some great defensive coverage, Michelle had great net play, Rachel and Brianna played consistently on the left side, Sheridan stepped in as Libero and made fantastic plays in the back row, Sophia had some powerful attacks that the opposition couldn’t dig and Gabriella made great strides with her attacking this weekend with four kills out of the middle! They all played well when on the court and improved throughout the tournament and in the Bronze medal game.
Tournament MVP was Louise!!
Thank you to parents Charles Cheng and Jennifer Chen for taking photos and video during the tournament. Click here to view the photos. Watch some the video clips below.
Lisa Ramsey
Head Coach
