The Apex U16 Pulse girls completed their first of seven tournaments this season at the Fraser Valley Super Series with an overall strong effort. The team was ranked 23rd out of 32 teams overall and 3rd out of 4 teams in their pool heading into the tournament. The girls faced some tough competition on day one dropping all three pool games to #1 Campbell River Crush, #2 CVC Wolves and #4 FVVC Blue. In fact, the pool was so unpredictable that FVVC finished 1st in the pool, CVC finished 2nd, Campbell River finished 1st and Apex came in 4th. Pulse was placed into Tier 2 and went on to beat the Abbotsford Volleyball Club in the first round of Tier 2 matchups. This guaranteed a top-half finish in Tier 2.

On Day 2, Pulse battled Synergy, defeating the club from Surrey 2-0. Next up was a date with the Vernon Vengance in the semi-finals. The other semifinal on the court next to Pulse was another team from the Okanagan, the Vernon Lizards vs. the same Campbell River Crush that had defeated Pulse on day 1 of pool play. Pulse knew that a win would set up a great matchup either way. The girls came out flying against the Vengance, led by the setting of team captain Adrienne Moopenn, the consistently clever hitting of Becca Arce and the best game of the tournament for both Ashley Sarazin and Lindsey Marks. Pulse went on to win 2-0 to guarantee themselves a top 2 finish. Ten minutes later, they would find out that they would have to contend with the ‘A’ team from Vernon, the Lizards. Although the girls battled hard, the strong serving of the Lizards proved to be too much as the Lizards won the Tier 2 crown 2-0.

With an overall finish of 18 out of 32 teams, the girls improved on their pre-tournament ranking by 5 spots and certainly ended the tournament on a high. The entire team knows it is only the first of many tournaments this year and know that they can push for a spot in Tier 1 come Provincials in April. However, they also know they’ll need to continue to work hard to improve their skills to become a more consistent and offensively dangerous team. Their next tournament is the Lower Mainland Super Series on March 27-28.

Tournament Results can be viewed at: http://volleyballbc.ca/index.asp?Page=939

Coach Tony