Breaker Girls Take Gold at Provincals
The Northumberland Breakers U18 girls brought provincial gold back from Waterloo last month.
The girls were at RIM Park on April 30 to compete in the Ontario Championships.
The Breakers were seeded 20th out of 37 teams and needed to win every match in the first two days to compete for the tier one gold medal. The first match of the tournament pitted the Breakers against the team they beat in the gold medal match the year before, the Northern Chill. Starting slowly, the girls dropped the first game 25-16 but rallied back to win the second 26-24. But despite a good effort they dropped the tie breaker 12-15. Regrouping, the girls were able to win their other two matches on day one over the BVC Strikers (25-14, 22-25, 15-12) and the Toronto Aces (25-14, 22-25, 15-13) but it wasn’t enough to qualify for tier one.
On day two, the Breakers faced BVC again and lost in two straight games (25-23 and 25-22). The girls were successful in their remaining two matches, defeating Ottawa Fusion (25-17, 25-14, 15-10) and Toronto Interclub (25-22, 25-18, 15-11). But because of their loss to BVC, they were moved down to tier three for the final day of the tournament.
The first opponent in tier three, the Cambridge Hawks Black, fell 25-9 and 25-16 due to powerful hits and strong serving by the Breakers. Next up was the Ottawa Fusion, and the local girls were victorious again (25-12, 25-12).
The tier three final put the Breakers up against a strong hitting team, the Niagara Rapids Black. The Breakers set the tone with solid blocks and strategic hits and the result was a 25-21 win. The Rapids came back with the same line-up in game two but with renewed effort and they kept the game closer. After several game points for each team the Breakers were victorious 29-27 and claimed the gold medal.
It was a great way for the Spoolon Breakers to end the season and for most of the athletes, end their Club volleyball experience. Team Captain Samantha Clarey will be moving on to the Syracuse Orange of the NCAA while teammates Justine Verkuyl and Tess Newey will be playing for Canadore College in North Bay next year. Two of the girls, Sherene Einarsson and LeeAnne Jeffs, will be playing for Loyalist College in Belleville and Samantha Belsey will be playing for Trent University of Peterborough. Setters Ashley Clark and Brittany Bell have not decided on their future volleyball plans and versatile Amanda Eagan will be back to anchor the Breakers next year.
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