Canada Day 9-Man Tournament Day 2

Playoffs: Warriors vs Phoenix A

Men's finals: Connex "B" vs Phoenix A

Various clips of the Warriorettes

More Pictures

The tournament ended on Sunday, but I have been too lazy to upload the pics and videos and write about it until now. Most of my pics are of the girl's team b/c it's difficult to take pictures while playing :p

The guys didn't play as well the second day. We couldn't get fired up during the first game and had to split sets, when we should've taken both. We finished 8 out of 12, which just qualified us for the championship playoffs (instead of the consolation playoffs). The way that the rankings were done were kinda strange since it only counted the 2nd round robin after the re-pooling and was based first on the number of sets won, and then the point spread. I feel that we could beat teams that were ranked higher than us. For instance, we beat Outtahand the day before and they were ranked 4th. I think they had an easier pool than we did. Anyways, being 8th, that meant we had to play the 1st place team, which was Phoenix A and we didn't fare too well. They're a good, seasoned team. It was single elimination, which meant that we were out.

The finals was Connex "B" vs Phoenix A. I say "B" b/c it was really a mix between their A and B team. Note the numbers of the Connex players in the picture at the top: 4, 4, 8, 2, 2. There are duplicates b/c there are players from both the A and B teams playing. The backcourt had A players as well. Connex won. Yes, the same team that we almost took a game off. Not bad for a new team :)

For the guys, we felt that we did pretty good overall in the tournament. It was a good learning experience for the team, we managed to beat some seasoned teams, and made it into the playoffs, not bad for a new team. There are things we need to work on and playing real games helped show us what we need to focus on and watching 9-man games shows us what we should be doing. I'm confident that with our hard work and consistent practices, we'll be in good shape for the big tournament in San Francisco! Here's my list of things that I personally want to concentrate on:

1. Pass more with my hands. I'm doing more than I used to, but could be doing more.


2. Serve more accurately, more difficult, more consistent, and adjust better to wind conditions.


3. Stay fired up backcourt and really dive for the ball (yes, diving on concrete). Need to learn how to roll better as well.


4. Learn to read the hitters through the 3 sets of hands blocking my view. I noticed that the players on other teams were better readers than I am and were in the right position at the right time.

The girls did really well in the tournament! They went into the playoffs in first place! They basically rolled over anyone in their path after their first game of the tournament. Unfortunately, they lost to Connex B in the semi's, a team that they had beaten in the round robin earlier that day. The finals was Connex B vs Phoenix A, coincidentally, the same as on the men's side :), except that Phoenix won.

The club is off to a good start and things are only going to go up from here!