The U15 T2 Crew 1 (T2C1) girls' volleyball team had a strong outing with its scrappy game play in their first U15 Volleyball BC Super Series event and walked away with a second place finish.
This past weekend featured 17 of the top U15 girls' club volleyball teams in the province competing at the AA Tier 1 level at UBCO. T2C1 team came out swinging right out of the gate.
The team finished second in pool play behind last year's provincial champions and number one ranked Ducks Elite Brynn on day one. T2C1 lost to the Ducks in pool play in a scrappy affair, taking The Ducks to a third set, foreshadowing a gold medal matchup in the following day's playoffs.
The team's head coach for T2 C1, Rob Steciuk, and assistant coach Paul Berisoff, had the team firing on all cylinders, with strong defensive and team pursuit play, consistent serving and timely attack runs throughout the weekend.
Photo Credit: Contributed
The girls began their playoff run against BCO Black, who went undefeated in pool play and were favored to be in the top final 4. T2C1 came from behind a few times to win the first set 26-24 and had another comeback in the second set thanks to a strong serving run by setter Aspen Appelt that proved to be the difference maker as the girls won the second set 25-19, sending them to the semi-finals against a strong defensive team in Air Attack Gold.
In the semi-finals, T2C1 continued with their strong serving and timely attack runs by Bella Filipenko (outside hitter) and Madison Hicks (middle) and a strong serving run by setter Shea Berisoff, to win both sets and advance to the gold medal match against Ducks Elite Brynn, who had not lost a set all weekend, other than to T2C1.
Middle blocker Skylar Lozinski, during the second set of Air Attack Gold, was able to add timely blocks and chipped in the game winning serve which ended up being an Ace that closed out the semifinal match for T2C1.
Photo Credit: Contributed
The gold medal match was a back-and-forth affair with both teams showing strong defensive play and powerful outside and middle attacks with the edge going to the Ducks in the first set 25-20. The second set, the Ducks proved to be the better team in that moment, handling the T2C1 girls and winning out 25-15.
All weekend, T2C1's offense ran through both of their setters, Shea Berisoff and Aspen Appelt, who both had strong outings. Shea finished with 10 attack kills and also had 14 serving aces, while Aspen was able to chip in 3 attack kills and 10 serving aces herself.
However, both setters were able to spread the volleyball effectively and leaned heavily upon Bella Filipenko, who was laying bombs from the outside, finishing with a total of 25 kills for the tournament and on Madison Hicks, who proved that middles are not just for blocking, finishing with 22 kills for the tournament.
Both Madison and Bella were instrumental in T2C1s defensive play, as was middle Steffi Drasdo and outside hitter Madison Boerner, and the two aforementioned setters. Outside hitter Lauren Hennessey chipped in timely defensive plays and serving runs that proved to be difference makers in multiple matches.
Photo Credit: Contributed
Coach Steciuk says that he was very proud of the girls and how they played big and strong against some of the top teams in BC. Moreover, he commented on how the girls were playing for each other, laying out for volleyballs all over the court.
He is looking forward to the second VBC Super Series at the end of the month in Burnaby.
Steciuk comments that "he was particularly proud to see all the Kelowna teams have a very strong outing this weekend. The Okanagan Valley is showing Vancouver club teams that we are to be taken seriously and girls' volleyball is strong here. It was great to see all of the teams cheer each other on."
West Kelowna Thunder finished third and Kelowna Volleyball Club (KVC) Black Krush finished fifth, all in AA tier 1.
