Area volleyball team takes home bronze medals from provincial championships

NEWS RELEASE
COLLINGWOOD BLACK DIAMONDS VOLLEYBALL
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The local 16U girls volleyball club team with athletes from Owen Sound, Meaford, Stayner and throughout the Collingwood area participated in the 2022 Ontario Volleyball Association’s Championships this past weekend in Waterloo, Ontario at RIM Park. 

Over three days the Collingwood Black Diamonds volleyball team competed in nine matches winning seven and losing two to garner a bronze medal in Division Four. 

Over 110 teams participated in the event. Seedings from the limited events held this year (COVID restrictions) put the Black Diamonds in a 16-team pool (Division 4) ranked number 10. On the first day, they played into a tree-way tie for first with Sault Ste Marie and London relegating Newmarket to fourth with three teams at 2-1. 

Unfortunately, the tie-breaking procedure placed the team third and moved them to the consolation bracket.  

The team faced an uphill battle head-on by winning all three of their day two matches in two straight sets over Oakville, Etobicoke, and Thunder Bay. 

This propelled them back to the championship side on day three where they faced the top seed from London which was their only loss to date. 

In a dramatic see-saw match of incredible rallies and defence, the Diamonds won in the third set 15-13 to propel them into the semi-finals versus Sault Ste Marie again (fourth seed). In an even more exciting match, the Diamonds fell just short in an 18-16 third match tie-breaker.  

This set the Diamonds up for a bronze medal opportunity versus another club from the London district. The team started slowly and lost the first set 25-18, but bounced back to take the second 25-21 and force a tie-breaking third set. The Diamonds started strong and never looked back with a punishing 15-4 victory to secure the bronze medal.  

The coaching staff of Head Coach Derek Nischan and Assistant Coach Michael Harris were concerned at the beginning of the year as only six players were returning from two years prior.  They added seven new players to club volleyball and one athlete with a late birthday was able to join from an older team. Initially, efforts were focused on bringing the new players up to competition speed and improving basic skills and tactics. They performed well in their only tournament in Niagara Falls (ranked 11th) once again finishing in a three-way tie for first in pool play (and finishing third in the tie-break) to take out the second seed at the tournament, but fell to the number-one seed. 

The team faced several obstacles shortly thereafter from COVID to injuries, which impacted their league play results and dropped them from the third division to the fourth for provincials. 

However, the team changed their offensive structure in the three weeks prior to negate the impact of those injuries. The opening loss to London on day one was expected as it was the team’s first time implementing their new system into actual games and some learning opportunities were needed. 

Both coaches expressed similar views in that the team exceeded their expectations.

Coach Nischan stated, “we knew we had a special group of tenacious, motivated and resilient athletes, we just weren’t sure if they would peak at the right time.” 

Coach Harris commented that he knew the team was going to win the bronze when he saw them sitting together in a circle waiting on a court prior to the bronze medal match after finishing their warm-ups (as the prior game went long).

They were all there as equals supporting one another.  The team also gave out the Award of Excellence to Julie Harris from Owen Sound for her dedication, determination, leadership and positive attitude.

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