Weekend In Review
 

Summer Camp Registration
 

Our Summer Camp will run the week of
Monday, July 27th through to Friday, July 31st 2009.

Secure Registration for Summer Camp is open.

Don’t be disappointed this Summer,
register early and guarantee your child’s space in this
truly unique Summer camp.

Waterloo Record Article
 

Check out this great volleyball article by Andrew Coppolino featuring interviews with John Nelson and Terry Hinchberger regarding volleyball in general and volleyball in the Region.

Girls 13U Black are 5th in the Province
 

Congratulations go out to Coach Terry’s 13U Girls Black team for finishing their season tied for 5th overall in the province at this past weekend’s Ontario Championships in Oshawa at Durham College. This was the first opportunity to meet the teams from East of Toronto. There was some really exciting volleyball played by all of the top 24 teams that attended this tournament hosted by DRVC. A big pat on the back goes out to our tournament team MVP setter Princess Maranan for winning this prestigious honor. Way to go girls!!

Good Luck at the 14U Ontario Championships at RIM Park in Waterloo on Friday April 24th to Sunday April 26th.

(Scores on team page)
 

18U Boys Black Bring Home Gold From Nationals
 

The 18U Boys sealed their tremendous end of season run by bringing home GOLD for Tier 2 in Ottawa this past weekend.

The team set daily goals at the start of each morning, and achieved every one of them.

Friday saw the start of pool play, with the aim to be included in the Tier 1 & 2 division for Saturday. The boys first match against a team from Lethbridge AB was early, 7:30 a.m. start. It took the boys a while to warm up, but in the end the match went in the Tigers favour after 3 sets. The second match against Northumberland Breakers was over quickly, Tigers winning 2 straight sets. The third match on Friday saw the team agains the #2 seed in the tournament, Manitoba Bisons. The Bisons won, but with 2/1 record on the day the Tigers were sealed for Tier 1 & 2 play for Saturday - daily goal achieved.

The team knew that Saturday's play would be tougher, and knew that moving on into Tier 1 for playoff play would be a hard battle. So the ultimate goal was to simply take one match, preferably from MAC - a team that squeaked wins from Tigers twice earlier in the season. The boys were anxious for some retribution. As the day progressed, the Tigers lost to Fraser Valley & Interclub. So the final match Saturday against MAC became critical for getting a more favourable draw on Sunday.

And again the Tigers were successful in meeting this specific daily goal. The team beat MAC in straight sets.

Sunday arrived with Tigers starting in the quarter final match against a team from Kelowna. After a rocky start & losing the first set 25-17, the boys settled down and took the next 2 sets 25-22, 15-9. On to the semi's & at least a fourth place finish.

The semi-final pitted the Tigers against Aurora Storm, another team that the team wanted to beat to show that the Tigers were a better team than the season would have shown. Although a physically bigger team than our Tigers, the Storm faced some incredible blocking and consistent serving, falling to the Tigers in straight sets 25-18, 25-20. The finals were waiting with the colour of hardware on the line!

In the gold medal match, the boys met the most amazing team of the tournament, Pegasus from Kingston. This team came into the tournament seeded 40th of 40 teams, and here they were in the Tier 2 gold medal match. So we knew that they had also brought their best game to Ottawa. The first set was fairly easily won by the Tigers 25-17, but Pegasus put up a tough stand in the second. The points were evenly traded, with the Tigers always ahead by only 1 or 2 points. But a tough push at 22-22 brought victory to our team at a final score of 25-22. Mission accomplished.

The boys (and parents) celebrated with high fives, ear-to-ear grins, and hugs. It had been a very long, hard fought season but the end result with a Gold at Nationals in Tier 2, making them the 11th best team in the nation, made up for some tough losses.

Many of these boys are now setting their sites on playing varsity ball, or another year at high school. But this is a wonderful way to have this group of boys finish playing together in the black & red uniforms of the Tigers.

Congratulations Team!

TIGERS 14U BLACK WIN GOLD AT THE ONTARIO OPEN
 

The Tigers 14U Black girls team, coached by Marek Gwozdz, Mally Plotogea, and Catharine Dixon, put everything together at the Ontario Open on March 28th ad Cameron Heights and won the gold medal, ensuring their movement into Division I for Provincials.

The girls were unbeaten in pool play defeating both Tigers 13U (who were riddled with illness) and Predators 14U Black 2-0. In the playoffs they first took Stratford Gold (2-1) and then won a very exciting victory over Predators Purple (2-0) in front of a packed crowd in the “battle of Waterloo.” This match was the highlight of the day pitting two very good teams together. Play was intense and the lead changed hands several times before Tigers finally prevailed.

In the final, Tigers beat South County 2-0 after a huge comeback in set two where they trailed 11-10 and won the set 25-20. Unbelievable! They did it by serving in every single time, playing great defence in picking up all their opponents’ hard cross-court spikes, and cheering each other on, never giving up, and calling every ball. The turning point had to be the huge stuff block by Jennifer Woods which gave the Tigers a big lift and greatly demoralized South County. Not normally a middle player, she did the same against the Predators in the previous match. They say defence wins big matches and it sure did this time. Coach Marek was elated with the play of his team – the girls “finally are showing what they are capable of.” The team had worked very hard on tip coverage and digging up power hits and it really paid off.

Well done!

TIGERS RED 14U GIRLS FINISH 9th
 

The Tigers 14U Red team finished 9th at the Ontario Open Trillium division played March 28th at Cameron Heights. This greatly-anticipated 12-team tournament featured no less than three Tigers and three Predators teams. Somehow we managed to avoid playing all of them and finished a respectable 2-2 on the day.

Our first match was against a 13U team from Sarnia and we won 2-straight (25-13, 25-10) behind the solid play of Monica and Andrea, and Tina’s serving. We next played South County whom we defeated for the bronze medal six weeks ago in Stratford. This match was for first place in the pool. South County captured the first set 25-20, pulling away on serving when the score was 19-19. Set two was a cliff hanger and South County outlasted us 29-27 in a heartbreaker. We played very well but lost to a strong opponent.

We had game serve on them three times....(full article)

!8U Boys Turn Heads in 2009 Provincials at Rim Park
 

The 18U Boys Waterloo Tigers team absolutely sent the rest of Ontario teams a message leading up to Nationals in Ottawa (starts May 1st).

The Tigers teams no doubtedly struggled most of this season, with limited success. But the team kept up their goal of achieving & maintaining a position in Tier 1 for the Provincial tournament, with lots of hard work at practices and commitment from their 3 coaches to push for the best efforts the boys could provide.

They entered the weekend seeded 10th out of 19 teams, starting in a difficult pool that included the #1 seed (Crush from Scarborough). When the team arrived to play the first round on Saturday, they were met with news that Crush had an injury to a major player, as did a number of the other top teams. The Tigers were strong & healthy, and saw this as a opportunity to push their limits. 

First match on Saturday saw them beat Pakman 212, a team that historically has beaten the Tigers. With the second match against #1 Crush finishing in the Tigers favour, the boys started talking about Karma.

Second day play was equally intense with matches against Interclub (Toronto) and MAC (Hamilton), ending with their pool of 3 teams finishing in a 3 way tie. By virtue of points for/against, the Tigers were placed third. 

This meant an extra game on playoff day Monday, but a more favourable draw. The first match on Monday was against the Crush team. It was close, but the Tigers prevailed in the third set, sending Crush home & the Waterloo boys on to meet Pakman club "A" team in the quarter final. This is another team that the Tigers have not been successful against, but riding the wave of success meant a large win in 2 straight sets. The win solidified a 4th place final position - well above the 10th place seed where the Tigers started their weekend.

At this point, Rim Park was full of teams talking about the dark horse Waterloo Tigers and their run for a medal.

4th place is where they finished, after 2 very valiantly played matches in the semi-final (Forest City) and the bronze medal match (Durham Attack). But a huge climb from 10th, and the end of an extremely satisfying weekend.

The team is extremely grateful to their 3 coaches: Dave Steiner, Brett Campbell & Cameron Dunning - all three who were on the University of Waterloo varsity squad this past season. Making the extra commitment to helping the 18U Tigers boys squad was immense in the team's success late in the season. And these young men are now setting new goals for success at Nationals in Ottawa.

15U Boys Jump up in Ranking at 2009 Provincials
 

The Boys 15u Waterloo Tigers had their last OVA tournament of the season this past long weekend, The Ontario Provincial Championships held at RIM Park. The competition was a tough three days long but what an exciting tournament!

DAY 1:

The boys were seeded 12th going into the competition and placed in a tough pool that included 2nd seed Aurora Storm, 9th seed Chatham Ballhawks and 19th seed Kingston Pegasus. The boys opened the day play their first game against and talented Ballhawks team. The match went to three sets and with hard work the boys came out on top. The Second game had them matched up with one of the favourites to win the tournament, the Aurora Storm. They tried but were out gunned....needless to say they were even more determined. After a long break the boys faced Pegasus Smash of Kingston and were back on the winning side. Finishing 2nd in the pool the boys were among the best of Ontario and were placed in Tier 1.

DAY 2:

The second day didn’t “go as planned” is the best way to put it, losing 2 really tough fought 3-set matches against the Niagara Rapids and Mississauga Pakmen the boys were drained physically, mentally and emotionally. This set them up to lose 2 more matches against the Ottawa Kangaroos and Scarborough Crush.

DAY 3:

With a bad day 2, the boys showed up day 3 with a new attitude and determination. This day was a very exciting day and the boys came out runnin’ and gunnin’. Finishing last in day 2 in their pool this meant they had to play an extra game before the quarter-finals. They dominated the ACTS Elites and put them out in 2 sets. In the quarter-finals they were matched up against Scarborough Crush. The boys fought but it was not to be, they lost the eventual Champions.

The boys finished the tournament Tied for 5th in the Province. The Coaches and Team is very pleased with the end result finishing higher than they were seeded. Congratulations to Team Captain Gabe Richard whom the team picked for our Award of Excellence and for being MVP of this tournament.

Results on team page
 

15U Girls Black Provincial Championships 2009, April 11-13th
 

The girls had a great end to the season at Provincials. We started off strong finishing in a three-way tie for third in our pool. We unfortunately ended up third after the tie-breaking procedure.

We had a good second day as well, finishing second in our pool and giving us a good position for playoffs. We won the pre-quarter playoff match in two games straight. Our quarter final game was a tough fight but we came up just short. This placed us fifth in Division 2- tier 2.

Congratulations to Carly Wagner- our Award of Excellence recipient.

Thank you, parents, for all your support- and thanks to all the players for a fantastic season!

Results...

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