Terrace’s Northern Fusion club volleyball team had yet another bright season – cleaning up at nationals to take gold in their division.
With head coach Tyler Clarke and assistant coaches Bert Fawdrey and Kam Siemens, the U16 team started off the season with a silver medal at the Northern Invitational in Prince George before placing 9th at a challenging Super Series tournament in Burnaby. Then came provincials in Abbotsford at the beginning of May where the girls came home as bronze medalists in their division.
“We worked very hard with our girls to elevate their gameplay,” said Siemens in an email. “It sure paid off at the 2015 Volleyball Canada Championships in Calgary, the girls played strategic, powerful and kept their mental game in check.”
The first day of nationals, the girls went undefeated, playing four matches in total and landing 1st in their pool.
They were re-pooled for the following day and won two of their three matches, resulting in a three-way tie for first place in that pool. That meant it came down to the amount of sets won and the northwest team was etched out of second place by one set, bringing them to Tier 2 in their division.
Northern Fusion played very aggressively on the final day of competition, leading them to the gold medal match-up with a familiar team – Mariners White from Vancouver Island, the team Terrace had beat at provincials for bronze.
“We knew it wasn't going to come easy so the girls went in swinging hard,” said Siemens.
“Each of our girls shone on the court, Correina McNeice, our setter and nucleus of the court, without her impressive sets we could not get our kills, Shay-Lynn Sampson, this year’s libero (back-row specialist) razzled and dazzled us with her passing, Ally Moldenhauer, opposite hitter, her strategic game plan was duly noted, our middle hitter Emma Kenmuir, her sneaking serving had the other teams puzzled.
“Gillian Frank-Middle player, net play with solid blocks, the power hitter Suttira Johansen, when she connected to the ball, there was no way the competition was going to get it. Cameron Golder, our multi-faceted player, played power hitter and opposite, her high intensity shone through. Mya Siemens, our power hitter, with her consistent jump float serve was too much for the opposing teams to handle. Her intense ball kills definitely had the competition raddled.”
The team is now gearing up for summer training and tournaments, wrapping up Baden Cup tryouts here last weekend.