Easter weekend saw the Northumberland Breakers 15U Girls, 18U Girls and 18U Boys teams finish their provincial volleyball competitions at the Ontario Championships in Waterloo, with the 18U Girls team securing a Gold Medal in Tier 2.
The Breakers 18U Girls moved up to Tier 1 in the province in their first tournament of the season in January and competed in two Tier 1 tournaments prior to the Provincials. A ninth and twelfth place finish in the tournaments made the Breakers the eleventh seed going into the 32 team Provincial tournament.
Day one was not the best for the 18U girls as they won only one of three matches. The Breakers opened the day beating lower seed Toronto Royals (25-21, 22-25, 15-6), but lost to lower seed MAC 17U (21-25, 25-23, 12-15) and higher seed Forest City Green (18-25, 14 -25). Forest City went on to a fourth place finish in Tier 1 while MAC finished tie-5th.
Day two found a re-focused Breakers 18U Girls team in Tier 2 of the Ontario Championship with the Gold Medal their primary objective. The girls established themselves as a contender with wins over Etobicoke Wildcats (22-25, 25-21, 16-14), Georgian Bay Vista (25-12, 25-23) and West Elgin (25-19, 25-11). The win over the Vista was sweet as Georgian Bay had beaten the Breakers the month previously at a tournament in Buffalo.
The final day draw was a 16 team elimination tournament for the Gold Medal. The Breakers started strong handling Etobicoke Titans 17U 25-22, 25-21 and then Toronto 2Strong 25-17, 26-24 setting up a re-match with the Vista in the semi-finals. The team was very aware of their opponent’s strengths and weaknesses and took advantage winning the first game 25-20. The Vista adjusted and took the second 25-22 setting up a third and deciding game. With renewed effort the Breakers took charge and were victorious 15-9 propelling them into the gold medal match against Sudbury’s Northern Chill.
The final was a close match between two very competitive teams. The Chill jumped to a quick 8-0 lead in the first game but the Breakers battled back to tie the game at 24-24 before losing 26-24. The team then knew they would have to dig deeper to win the next two games if they wanted to claim the Gold Medal. The second game was as close as the first but this time the Breakers came out on top winning 25-23. The Breakers started the final game of the tournament with confidence and held the lead the whole way. Northern Chill battled back but fell just short as the Breakers won by two points, 15-13, earning them the Gold Medal. “This tournament was really a team effort with each player shining at different times throughout the weekend,” stated Coach Mark Essak. “We are all very proud of these athletes.”
The Breakers 15U Girls team came into the weekend seeded 24th and were stacked up against 3 strong teams (2 from Durham Region, and 1 from Peterborough), in the first round of pool play and ended the day 4th in their pool. The 2nd day action of pool play saw the 15U girls team hit their stride and came first in their pool winning 2 of the 3 matches against teams from Waterloo, Oakville and Niagara. This moved the Breakers 15U Girls team into the final day quarter final playoffs versus the Acts Elites. After some strong play and great rallies the girls eventually fell to the Elite (0-2) and placed a very respectable 5th in the tournament.
The Breakers 18U Boys team (seeded 13th) came up against teams from London, Mississauga and Brantford in the first day of pool play. After some close games and great back & forth rallies the Breakers finished the first day 3rd in their pool with a 1-2 match record.
The second day of pool play saw the Breakers 18U boys will all 6 of their games to finish 1st in their pool. They defeated Thunder Bay (3-0) and then took on their rivals the Kingston Pegasus team. The first two games of this match were hard fought and close contests with 2 point margins of victory for the Breakers. The Breakers 18U boys ended up winning the match 3-0 after convincingly winning the third game of the match.
In the quarter-final playoffs the Breakers 18U Boys came up against the Toronto Pakmen 212 team. The Breakers lost the 1st game by 2points in extended play, then came on to win the 2nd game again by a 2 point margin. With a hard fought 3rd game again going into extended play the Breakers eventually fell to the Pakmen 212 team 16-18 (15 pt game) to finish the tournament in 5th place in Tier 2.
Next up for the 18U Girls and Boy Breakers teams is the Volleyball Canada National Championships in Ottawa May 1st – 3rd.