Under 18 Blizzard's Capture Silver at Provincial Championship

Waterloo, ON - The North Bay Blizzard 18u capture Division 2 silver medal on the weekend at the Ontario Provincial Championships. After finishing 1st in pool play on both days the Blizzard's automatically advance to the quarter-finals where they defeated the Etobicoke Titans 2-0 (25-16, 25-23). In the semi-final match the Blizzard's defeated Kingston Venom 2-1 (25-19, 19-25, 19-17). The Blizzard's were down 11-14 and fought back to win the final set 19-17 to advance to the finals. In the gold medal game the Blizzard's met the Toronto Diamonds and came up short losing 0-2 (23-25, 21-25).

Caitlin Hebert and Natalie Dupuis were named tournament all stars.

"This weekend we accomplished a lot of goals. The most important one being team play and communication", said Co-coach Carrie Baldwin. "This is what we have been working on all year and now we have something to show for it."

"With this team having only two players that are actually 18u and the remainder of the team 17u and 16u, we have accomplished something that we would have never thought of at the beginning of the season", said Co-coach Ben Hong "We are very proud of this group."

The 18u Blizzard's team members are: (front row) Co-coach Ben Hong, Natalie Dupuis, Cori Toshack, Sophia Benitez, Jessica Stickle, Lauren Zuccherato. (back row) Co-coach Joey Rainer, Meghan Buckle, Caitlin Hebert, Morgan Amell, Amanda Lapshinoff, Bridget Tancredi, Emilie Goulet, Dani Hebert, Co-coach Carrie Baldwin.

Submitted to BayToday.ca