It was time for ground-breaking accomplishments as the Northern Chill 14U Boys became the first ever male component of the local volleyball club to compete in OVA tournament play in November.
Their second event, late last month, came within a play or two of seeing the local lads battle for a podium finish late Saturday afternoon. All in all, a pretty good start for the fledgling group.
Travelling to Maple and competing in a four-team pool, the locals slid into third place, despite winning four sets, the same total as the top two squads in their bracket.
The Chill split with both the Kitchener-Waterloo Predators – Black (28-26, 10-25) and the MAC – Cobalt from Hamilton (25-22, 11-25), before sweeping past the Leaside 13U Thunder, 25-11, 25-23.
Pitted against the second place finisher in Pool “B,” the northern crew went right down to the wire before coming up just short in quarter-final play, downed 25-18, 21-25, 13-15 by the Guelph Jr Gryphons.
Though a top four finish was not in the cards, the 14U Chill showed just how close they are, wrapping up the day with victories over both the Niagara Rapids 13U – Legend (25-20, 17-25, 15-11) and the Leaside 13U Thunder, for a second time (26-24, 17-25, 15-10), securing fifth place in the process.
This inaugural team brings together the talents of Quinn Bardell, Simon Lemieux, Alec Richard, Ashton Lachance, Jordan Schweyer, Nathan Robinson, Asher Kolari, Cameron Van Der Zyl, Zacharie LeBlanc, Logyn Bernard, Brady Rheaume, James Welsh, coach Bryan Welsh and assistant coach James Schweyer.
