There is always an extra special sense of achievement when a team can hit the podium in their very first tournament of the season.
That feeling was prevalent for the Northern Chill U17 Girls last weekend, who handled every opponent other than the gold-medal-winning Markham Wildcats Tigers last weekend in Barrie, settling for silver when all was said and done.
As luck would have it, the Chill and Tigers would find themselves in the same pool to start the day. After gradually hitting their stride in a two-set win (25-18, 25-21) over the Thundercats from York Region, the Chill were swept aside by the Markham crew, for the first time, 25-23, 25-18.
The strength of their bracket was evidenced in the playoff round as the Sudbury squad downed the Titans Eclipse (Scarborough) 25-16, 25-14 in quarter final action, and beat the Orillia Suns Eclipse 25-15, 25-16 in the semi-finals.
While a rematch with the Tigers would prove far more competitive, the locals were eventually beaten 25-23, 17-25, 15-11 to close out the Provincial Cup – Championship B tournament.
“Overall, our out of system play and our effort on defence were our strong points,” said head coach Kevin Wiseman, in a press release.
“Just a few small things to tweak, moving forward, and hopefully we can improve the result next tournament.”
The graduate of Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School pointed to the semi-final win as key, noting that the blocking and attacking of both Samia Poulin and Amy Connelly was simply too much for the Suns to handle.
The 2018-2019 roster for the Northern Chill 17U crew has assembled Amelina Iturregui, Emma Squires, Symantha Welsh, Amy Connelly, Katie Staffen, Erika Brown, Amber Jacques, Brielle Chicoine, Samia Poulinand Lauren Jeanneault.
