At the Lower Mainland Regional Championships this weekend, the girls continued to turn heads both amongst the competition and the tournament organizers. Consistently ranked amongst the lowest teams heading into every tournament they’ve entered, the girls simply proved them all wrong again – this time being ranked 15th out of 17 teams. In game one despite losing in straight sets, the girl managed to earn at least 20 points in each set from the 5th ranked Air Attack Storm. Velocity dominated their second match of the day against the North Shore Wild Black, which set up their final match in pool play against the 6th ranked Thunder Blue. The top two teams in the pool would move on to the Championship Playoff while the bottom two teams would be relegated to the Consolation Playoff. The scenario was simple: win and finish second in the pool or lose and finish third. A win would also guarantee a spot in Tier 2 at the Provincial Championships while a loss could possibly lead to being placed in Tier 3. Set one went back and forth for the most part until the girls stepped it up to another level that Thunder was unable to match as the girls were pumped about taking the first set. The girls expected Thunder to come out strong in the second set so they knew they had to set the tempo right off the bat; and that they did roaring out to a 5-0 lead forcing Thunder to call a time out. In a twist of irony, it appeared as though Thunder simply collapsed under the deafening cheers of the Velocity girls as they pulled away for an easy win to take the match and finish 2nd in the pool! The girls played their best game of the year in the most important game so far this year!

The girls faced a tough BCO Black team ranked 3rd in the tournament and unfortunately dropped the game in two straight sets. There were unbelievable stretches where the girls played point for point with BCO but just couldn’t do it consistently enough to take the match. As if one BCO team wasn’t enough for the girls, next up was 6th ranked BCO Red. At this point of the tournament, it was the fifth game in a row without a break and many of the girls were on their last legs and simply didn’t have enough gas in the tank to compete against Red.

Although the girls couldn’t pull of victories in their last three games, with a season best 9th place finish there’s no denying the fact that Apex Velocity has earned, and deservedly so, a high ranking in Tier 2 heading into the Provincial Championships May 1-2 in Abbottsford!

Congratulations to the team on their continued improvement and achievements over the course of the season! Keep it up as we push to Provincials!

Coach Ninja