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Waterloo weekend #2- A club comes of age!

2010-04-25

First up the 15u Boys Wildcards heading in to the event as the number 11seed. The Wildcards were out to prove their worth. Friday started great forthem with straight set wins over the Cobras from Stratford and the Sharks fromLondon. The day ended on a tougher win but nonetheless a three set win over #4Durham. Effectively stealing Durham’s seed for Saturday.

Saturday brought a sudden stop to the streak with a straight set loss toPredators Rampage. Coach Shteinman's boys showed their resiliency by reboundingand taking out Interclub in 2. But ran into a tough #1 seed in Pakmen Blackfrom Mississauga. All in all still in good shape for Sunday.

The 'Cards got some measure of revenge first match Sunday by defeatingPakmen Yellow in the Round of 16. The quarters was a wild affair between the'Cards and the 'Cats. Unfortunately the feisty team from North Bay put an endto the season for us with a two set victory.

Over to the 15u Girls side. Our club was represented in both Division1 and Division 2 this weekend. The 15u Colts were fighting it out in Div 2.Their weekend started out with a big win in 3 over the Suns from Orillia and apair of tough 3 set loss to Diamonds Black from Scarborough and Titans Blackfrom Etobicoke.

Saturday was the flip side to the coin with wins over Predators andStingrays but a loss to T West. This set them up for a good match-up againstthe Grizzlies of Bowmanville. The Colts came in as the 9th seed and theGrizzlies the 17th. On paper it looked good, however any given Sunday as theysay and the result can be different. A tough loss by 2 and 3 points left thecolts out in the round of 32.

The 15u HP Ambush started out in Waterloo as the #8 seed in Tier 1 Division1. Their first day started great with a straight set win over Hurricanes bluefrom Burlington and began to slide with a three set win over DRVC. The dayended on a bit of a sour note with a straight set defeat at the hands of #1London Forest City Green. Still a good spot going into Saturday's power pools.

Saturday was not a day to remember for the girls, 3 losses all in straightsets put the team into a big hole for Sunday's play downs. Coach Mousseausurely gave the girls a great pap talk and positive mind set as they came outand defeated the #1 14u team in Ontario in three to advance to the quarterfinals. Unfortunately they ran smack into the #1 15u team in FC Green. Theresult was similar and the team would settle for a tie for 5th in Ontario. Allin all a good result any time you hold your seed or better it. Looking forwardto Nationals and hopefully a luckier draw.

Moving up to 16u Girls. Again the club was represented by two teams at thisage group, only this time both teams were in Tier 1 Division 1. The HP Outlawshad the number 6 seed while the Trailblazers came in at #28.

As a lower seed the 'blazers faced an uphill climb. They found out right offthe bat that this was a tough division. Possibly the deepest and toughest inthe province. 1st up would be the home town Predators Black. TheTrailblazers were going to prove a point and fought their way to an incredible34-32 win in the first. That was the high point of this match as the next twosets slipped away from us. The Grizzlies of Bowmanville were a lesser seed buthandled the Mavs in straight sets. All of this prepared the girls fortheir 3rd match-up with Niagara. Winning the first 25-16 the girls slipped alittle in the second but rebounded with an exciting 15-13 win in the decidingset.

On to Saturday; similar results met the girls with a 1-2 performance but themost thrilling was the third one vs. Chill from Hamner. a 24-16 , 22-25 matchleft the team and Coach Lavoie feeling pumped about Sunday.

Sunday's first opponent came into the tournament ranked 12th. Not someoneyou would expect to draw as a first round opponent in tier 2. The team known asInterclub was just too much for our Trailblazers and their weekend came to anend in two good sets. Well-done ladies, a valiant effort in the biggest eventof the season.

Saving the best for the last maybe...maybe just going in order of youngestto oldest. But the best results did come from our last two teams. First up theHP Outlaws. Coach Spack and his charges have great memories from winning 15uprovincials here a year earlier and were out to catch lightning in a bottleagain.

Seeded 6th the Outlaws rolled through day one with wins over Burlington Blaze, Windsor Rage and a strong DRVC team, a perennial top 4 finisher this season. Stealing the #3 seed the Outlaws headed into Sunday looking for more"Change to their Fortunes".

The forecast for Saturday was Stormy with Hurricane winds. Neither of which bothered our champs as they took out both Aurora and Burlington in straight sets. But then just as the sun was shining they ran into the hometown Predators Purple. These Preds were still hurting from their 3 set defeat at the hands of Aurora Storm and came out strong finishing the Outlaws perfect streak at 5.

Sunday was confusing to the team as it looked very much like Saturday repeated. First they had to put out a Blaze from Burlington and then deal with Toronto West before they ran into that Predator again. This time the girls were ready for some "eat or be eaten" action with the home team. Learning from earlier failures is key to being a successful team. The winner of 3312 made a lightsnack of those purple people eaters 26-16 and 25-21 before a packed and somewhat "hostile" home crowd.

On to the finals and the Titans from Scarborough. A mere #13 on the chart the Titans proved to be a team on the rise and took care of the Gold with a three set win over our girls. Another lesson learned? We'll see in Sherbrooke.

Last and certainly not least, if you got this far you might want to go reheat that coffee.

The 16u Boys HP Longhorns are the oldest team in the Maverick stable and they wanted to celebrate that with a big weekend. Small in numbers but big in heart the guys took to the Waterloo atmosphere like fish in water. As a #8 seed your first match is often a high seed and the guys drew #2 Forest City. This would prove to be their only loss for a while and even at that losing 18-16 in the third is like losing in overtime in hockey (sorry to bring that up).

Coach Prasil must have got the juices going and the 'Horns started reeling off wins over Niagara Rapids, Waterloo Tigers, Barrie Elites and Riverside Rage, this team seemed to be unstoppable, well almost. Along came the Pakmen, only a number 7 seed but they too had been cruising through the competition.Unstoppable force or immovable object? Talk about a see saw affair. Losing 13-25, winning 25-8 and then falling 15-5 must have had the fans of both team wonderingis the gym was slanted to one side.

On to Championship Sunday; Durham Attack, no problem well a win in three is a win, now who do we see here, hmm, FC Green in the quarters. Didn't we start here two days ago? The 'Horns were ready to settle that score. If not fors queaking out the first 26-24 those London boys would not have known what hitt hem as our guys came back to cruise to wins of 25-14 and 15-9. What adifference a couple of days makes!! Back to those pesky Rapids again too. The coaching staff and players learned not to let a Friday win make you complacent on Sunday, remember that 3 set win over Rapids? It means nothing this is the one that counts. So let's just take care of things in 2 this time!

Finals wow! Number 8 to top 2!!! 16u boys finals vs. Crush seems like I remember something like this taking place in Moncton last year at the 16U level. Regrettably history did not repeat itself this time around but let's see what comes up inSherbrooke.

2 Silver medalists at Tier 1 Division 1 in our Silver Anniversary Year in the biggest divisions in Ontario, really something to be proud of!

To all teams let's not let the scores stand. You have some work to do to beready for Nationals. Use this weekend as fuel for your competitive furnaces andpower your Coaches to be their best to match you.