U14 Black Girls Travel Team Welcome to the 2011/12 Rapids Travel season!! Tournament List Nov. 19th OVA Oakville- Bronze Dec. 17th OVA Cambridge- Gold January 22nd Buffalo (Snowflake Invitational)- Silver Feb 4th OVA - West Championship 7th Place Feb. 18 - Buffalo BNCC Storm U15 – 3rd place March 3rd OVA March 31st Rapids Invitational April 20-22nd- Provincials- Waterloo May 20-22- Canada Open Championships – Toronto The Niagara Rapids U14 Girls Black team went stateside January 22 to play at the Buffalo Niagara Court Centre where the girls won silver in the BNCC Snowflake Showdown 14 year old division. Twelve teams were entered in the event. The Rapids started slow splitting their first match 12-25, 25-17 but then won four straight matches to get to the finals. The girls defeated Crossroads VC 25-13, 25-17; Niagara Frontier 25-19, 25-21; Finger Lakes 25-13, 25-15 and Crossroads VC in the semi-finals 25-8, 25-14. The girls were up against the undefeated NFVB team in the championship match. The Rapids girls lost the first game 25-11 but regrouped in game two, a seesaw battle which saw NFVB prevailing 25-21. Congrats on a strong Niagara performance in New York State. The girls are returning to Buffalo Feb. 18 to play in the 15 year old division. On December 17th, the Rapids Black U14 team travelled to Cambridge to take part in the Challenge Cup. Great expectations were bestowed on the team as we entered the tournament as the Number 1 seed. In our first pool match we faced the Kitchener Predators Black team. Led by strong serving and consistent passing the first game was won 25-13. The second game started a bit slowly, and errant passing and lack of communication found us trailing by 7 points early. Fortunately the girls were able to regroup and take control of the game en route to a 25-22 win. The second match in pool play had us facing the Burlington Blaze. The Rapids made quick work of the Blaze with a convincing 25-6, 25-8 victory. After receiving a bye into the semi-finals, we found ourselves next facing an up and coming team from Simcoe. After falling behind early and having a difficult time dealing with Simcoe’s scrappiness and errant free balls, we were able to pull out a 25-23 win in game 1. Game 2 saw us grab the bull by the horns (with a berth in the Finals at stake), and we won comfortably 25-13. In the Finals we ended up facing our pool rivals from Kitchener once again. With memories of a poorly played second game against the Predators earlier in the day still fresh in their minds, the girls ended up winning fairly easily in 2 straight games to secure the Gold Medal! Overall it was a solid tournament for the team and everyone is starting to show rapid improvement from all the hard work in practice. Next up for the team is the Snowflake Festival south of the border in Buffalo, NY on January 22nd with a return to OVA action on Feb. 4th Keep working hard girls! It will all play off come April!