16U Samurai Show Fight, Rebound with Strong Weekend

The 16U Samurai entered the Lower Mainland Super Series as a 13th seed after a disappointing finish at their first tournament two weeks ago in Fraser Valley. The team was placed in a 5 team pool along with VVC Black, Air Attack Gold, FVVC White and CVVC Strikers. With a strong focus placed on ball control and smart serving, the team was motivated to overcome a tough first day of pool play and place themselves with the top teams in the province in the Tier 1 Division.

Day 1 started with a match against Air Attack Gold. Last tournament, Air Attack defeated the Samurai in playoffs with their strong blocking and good passing. However, this match was controlled by the Samurai with their strong serving and great serve receiving, leading to a 2-0 victory (25-12, 25-19). Next match was against a scrappy FVVC White team. The Samurai jumped to an early lead in both sets with a strong overall attack led by good choices from setter and captain Brandon Nguyen. Apex would eventually win the match 2-0 (25-15, 25-13). Next match was a crucial match against cross-town rivals and top ranked team in the pool, VVC Black. With continued focus on strong ball control and being confident in our team’s abilities, the team took the first set in a close battle, winning 25-20. Coach Wylen and Derek made sure the Samurai continued their momentum in the second set and behind the strong attack on the outside from Albert Tang and Kevin Li, the Samurai jumped out to a convincing 17-2 lead and would finish the match taking the second set 25-11. The final match of the day was against a tough CVVC Strikers team. The team would take the first set before falling behind to the Strikers 21-24 in the second. However, behind the clutch serving of Matt Nee, the Samurai would come back and take the next 5 points and win second set 26-24 and placed ourselves in Tier 1, with a cross-over match the next day against Kelowna Kannons.

The match against Kelowna Kannons was a tight match throughout. Samurai took the first set behind strong play from Albert Tang and Dawei Wang. The Kannons responded with a fantastic second set, using their outside hitters as their main offensive option. With a top 8 finish in mind, the Samurai responded with their best set of the tournament. The team jumped out to an early 8-3 lead and never looked back as they took the match and earned themselves a spot in the top 8. Next match was against the one of the province’s top teams in Focus Xplosion. Samurai continued to show their dominance on the offensive end, but had difficulty stringing together points due to the strong blocking and attacking prowess by Focus. Sparked by the strong passing and attacking of ex-Apex members Matty Hall-Stevenson and Kashtin De Souza, Focus took both sets, defeating the Samurai. The final game of the tournament was against Kodiaks. Coach Wylen and Derek stressed the importance of this bounce back game and the team received the message well, taking the first set. After falling early to the Kodiaks in the second set, Samurai pushed hard but fell just short, leading to another 3 set match. The Samurai jumped out to an early 8-1 lead behind a massive offensive game by outside John Dela Cruz and great serving by Patrick Lin. The team continued to put the pressure on, and took the third set in dominating fashion, winning 15-1. This victory concluded a strong weekend and pushed the Samurai to a 5th place finish.

The team showed great fight and heart throughout the weekend, led by Captain Brandon Nguyen and on-court leader Richard Bui. The Samurai seem to boast one of the more well-rounded attacking units with lots of depth on the outsides (Albert Tang, Evan Chang, James Ngo, John Dela Cruz, Kevin Li, Patrick Lin). With continued hard work and focus, the future looks bright as the team try to continue their high level of play and hopefully maintain their recent success.