Regional silver for Greenwood women
After hard-fought championship games, teams from CFB Halifax won gold medals at both the men’s and women’s Canadian Armed Forces Atlantic region volleyball championships March 1, hosted at the Atlantic Fleet’s Dockyard gym in Halifax.
The tournaments began February 26, with the 14 Wing Greenwood Bombers represented on the women’s side, playing against teams from Halifax and CFB Gagetown. The Bombers made it to the finals against the Halifax Mariners after the round-robin portion through the week, but fell three sets to none in the best-of-five gold-medal match, with scores of 25-17, 25-21 and 25-16 in favour of Halifax.
Captain Danielle Vortisch, Game MVP for Halifax following the finals, had praise for her teammates and respect for their opponents from 14 Wing, who put up a fight despite going down in three sets.
“They’re a good team: we played them earlier in the week and it was a really close game and they actually took a set from us. We had a team chat and did our best to adjust our game and capitalize on what we saw as their weaknesses. It worked out for us today.”
Greenwood team captain Corporal Brandi Weibel and coach Corporal Leo Gautier both agree the final score did not represent the battle that happened on the court.
“Our presence and pressure at the block forced Halifax to find a way around it,” said Gautier. “They made some mistakes because of it and it kept us in the game. Halifax had to fight for every of their points that led them to victory.
“It was not an easy game.”
They credit Corporal Carrie Laycock and Lieutenant Emilie Labbe with phenomenal and well-placed serves, Corporal Kristine Ouellet’s blocks, which stopped many points from being scored; and team cheerleader five-year-old Ryan Durling, who kept them motivated and focused through the round robin.
The men’s side of the tournament was another three-way competition between Halifax, 12 Wing Shearwater and Gagetown. Like their counterparts on the women’s team, the Halifax men were undefeated through the week, and won three sets straight in both their semifinal against Shearwater and the gold-medal game against Gagetown.
CAF nationals are in April at CFB Borden. The Kingston Knights’ women’s and men’s teams will both represent the Ontario Region.
