The Pakmen 18U Girls opted out of the OVA tournament for a tougher challenge at the Waterloo Warrior invitational club tournament.

This past weekend the Ontario bronze medal winners the Pakmen 18U Girls opted out of the OVA tournament for a tougher challenge at the Waterloo Warriors invitational club tournament December 6th. The tournament featured 5 teams that finished in the top 8 at last year’s Ontario Club championship. The field also included 2 top U17 teams.

First up for the Pakmen girls were the South County Bandits last year’s Ontario 6th place finisher. The Pakmen girls did not have much trouble in their first match of the day dispatching the Bandits 2-0. “I don’t think we played our best, we followed the tempo South County set for us and as a result it was closer than I would have liked” Pakmen Coach Bob Cholette.

The second match would prove tougher in what has to be a favorite to win this year’s U17 Ontario Championship the Predators. “They’re pretty strong in every position” says coach Cholette. “If you don’t play a good game you will be in trouble.” And this is what happened, the Pakmen girls sat back and let the Predators exert themselves allowing them to win 2-0 (25-22, 25-21). “It was not a strong game for us but a good learning experience on playing consistently and intensely” says Cholette.

With two games down the Pakmen girls would be out for revenge facing the team that beat them in last year’s Ontario Championship semi-final, The Ontario silver medalists’ Forest City. The team came out on fire; with strong blocking and defense the Pakmen girls quickly took the first sets. The Forest City team not to be outdone fought hard and with good setting and a strong middle attack won the second. In the decisive third set the Pakmen girls jumped out to an early lead and held on to the end to beat them 2-1. “This was a great win for us, the girls all played well from top to bottom” says Cholette.

Having lost the game earlier to the Predators the Pakmen girls would finish 3rd in their pool and would mean another tall order facing the Aurora Storm Typhoon, the team that defeated them in the finals of last year’s McGregor Cup. “I think this was a psychological hurdle for us to get over. They have a lot of good players and beating them would place us in elite company” comments Cholette. The girls still feeling high after beating Forest City tempered the Typhoon to a mild breeze taking the first set handily. In the second the team seemed a little worn down from the previous battle with Forest City so with the team down by 7 coach Cholette changed the whole line-up in order to rest his players while Storms players had to stay on and fight to win the second set. With the Storm taking the second set Cholette switched the line-up back for the third and the team responded jumping out to a 8-1 lead and easily taking the set. “We are showing improvement in every game and that is why we won this” said Cholette.

Semi final time and back in front of the Pakmen girls were the U17 Predators again. “I think our team was a little angry that we let them win earlier and that helped us along” says Cholette. The Pakmen girls’ older toughness shone through as they beat the Predators 2-0. The long days seemed to take its toll on the younger Predators. “We implemented a wearing down strategy that worked out in the end” comments Cholette.

In the finals they would face Forest City again, but now exhaustion was setting in after playing 5 matches already. “I recall one of the girls stating as a joke that she was becoming delusional due to tiredness. Six matches is a lot to play in one day” says Cholette. The Pakmen Girls won the first set easily and Forest City rallied for the second. The third was a dog fight with both teams on their last legs but Forest City pulled it out with a 15-12 victory.

“Overall the weekend was a success for us. We achieved our goal, had everyone play and are improving every game. It is great we had such success and still have things to work on that can make us better.” Coach Bob Cholette. The Pakmen Girls finished in second place with a 5-2 record.