Preds 16U Boys November 28th Tournament
The 16U boys opened up their OVA season in Scarborough. Facing our cross town rivals, the Waterloo Tigers, the Preds were in both games but couldn’t put together their killer instincts and dropped two straight by scores of 20-25 and 22-25. Our next match was against the Barrie Elites who eliminated us from the Provincials last year and once again the games were close but we could not seal the deal losing by scores of 19-25 and 22-25. Next up was the #1 seed in our pool, the Niagara Rapids. The Preds continued to compete with a 22-25 loss but followed that up with a 25-22 win forcing a third and deciding game. Unfortunately, the momentum didn’t carry over and the Preds dropped the last game 8-15.
In the playoff round, we crossed over to play the top ranked squad, Forest City, from the other pool. They showed us why they are one of the top ranked teams in the province, with a convincing victory by scores of 9-25 and 9-25. Since the top four teams advanced to the Premier division, this loss eliminated us from being able to finish in Tier 1. Next up was the Chatham Ballhawks who we played really tightly in game 1 but fell 23-25 and could not rally any momentum and bowed out of the tournament with a disappointing 10-25 loss.
This team has lots of potential to compete at a high level this year. We have had some really good practices lately and are making progress. We are competing against teams who were higher ranked than us last year. Hopefully the team will begin to gel on Dec. 12th at our next OVA tournament where we will be playing up a level against the 17U boys.
