Submitted
Coming off a successful home tournament win on April 30th, the U16 Warriors headed into Provincial with a lot of confidence. The Warriors began their weekend with Saturday round robin matches against NLVC from Fort McMurray, who they dispatched 25-17 and 25-5, and EKVC from Invermere/Golden B.C. who they beat 25-21 and 25-11. These wins gave the Warriors first place in their pool and a bye till Sunday morning.
On Sunday morning at 8 a.m. the Warriors faced the Whitecourt Revz. It was a match that was closer than it should have been, as girls did not seem quite awake. Never the less they managed back-to-back 25-17 and 25-17 wins. Then on to the quarterfinals, the Warriors would face the Queens Extreme from Red Deer, who they had narrowly defeated in the finals of their home tournament last weekend. Through most of the first set the Queens were the better team and led 20-17, before the Warriors coaches used their final time-out. After a missed Queens serve the Warriors offence took over pushing them to a 25-23 win. They then used that momentum in the 2nd set and overwhelmed the Queens to win 25-13, and advance to the semi-finals.
In the semi-finals the Warriors would once again face the EKVC Avalanche. The girls found their groove in an exciting win over the Queens and were now jump-started each set by 10-point serving runs by Jennifer Henderson.
Consequently, the Warriors cruised to 25-13 and 25-14 wins.
This moved them on to the provincial finals for the first time since 2005, against Vertigo from Calgary. At the beginning of the season the Warriors had easily defeated Vertigo 25-8 and 25-12, but most recently, in their home tournament, they only squeaked by them 25-23 and 25-21. It was an excellent first set that saw the two teams tied at 21-21, before the Warriors prevailed 25-22. Determined to finish the job, the girls played solid in 2nd set, winning 25-15. With the win the Warriors claimed their gold medals and first provincial banner since 2003. Karlee Seiweke and Kaitlin Lomas were name tournament all-stars.
The U15 Warriors also had a successful provincial weekend, coming home with the Bronze medal.