Keona Savage and Carson East had once-in-a-lifetime experiences over the weekend, as members of their respective BC U16 teams at the Canada Cup in Niagara, Ont.
Savage and East, both representing the Comox Valley Volleyball Club and Ecole Mark R Isfeld High School were selected from 96 athletes for their respective BC U16 provincial volleyball teams on July 12.
The invitational-only tryout was a six-day event with the selected players continuing to train with their 14-player teams for an additional six days in Kamloops at Thompson Rivers University before flying to Ontario on July 18, for the Canada Cup.
Both B.C. teams went through pool play at the national tournament undefeated, before facing some adversity in the playoff round.
The boys dropped only two sets in the round-robin portion, eking out a 3-2 victory over Alberta Blue (27-25, 23-25, 22, 25, 25-20, 15-10) and sweeping Newfoundland and Quebec, 3-0.
They opened their playoff round with a hard-fought five-set loss to the powerhouse Manitoba team, losing 15-17 in the tiebreaker.
The boys rebounded with a 3-1 victory over Alberta Black, before dropping another five-set heartbreaker to Saskatchewan, this time falling 17-19 in the tiebreaker.
They finished in style, with a 3-0 victory (25-20, 25-18, 25-20) over Quebec to capture the bronze medal.
Manitoba swept Saskatchewan for gold. The only two sets Manitoba lost in the playoff round were to B.C.
The girls also ran the table in their round robin, beating Manitoba in five sets (30-28, 13-25, 25-12, 19-25, 15-9), sweeping Alberta Blue, and disposing of Saskatchewan in four sets.
The girls faced Alberta Black to open the playoff round, sweeping them once again, before things went south for the team.
They lost all three remaining matches by 3-1 margins to Alberta Blue, Quebec, and Saskatchewan.
The Canada Cup brings together Canada鈥檚 next generation of high-performance athletes to compete for their home province/territory in a national championship. There were U16 and U18 tournaments for both girls and boys.
The 2023 event features nine provincial/territory teams, including both male and female athletes on a national scale.
The Canada Cup is a critical piece of the talent development process in Canada with over 300 athletes per gender covering a four year age span in the high-performance pathway.
