Lauren has been playing rep volleyball for the last 2 years. The first year started during the fall of 2020 when the pandemic was still fairly new. Their team was their cohort and they practiced and practiced. Many times they stopped because restrictions changed. It was a strange season with no games against other teams.
Fortunately, beach volleyball is outdoors and the summer of 2021 was filled with lots of volleyball. Lauren’s skills continued to grow and develop. She worked so hard at the court and at our local park… getting her overhand serve was her biggest challenge. She worked so hard.
Tryouts arrived. She went. She tried hard and stayed so positive! And she made the team!
Practices were twice a week, exhibition games with other club teams, league games with other clubs, and the pièce de ré·sis·tance… OVA Provincials!
Day 1
The day started out great! Lauren surprised us all… in 8 months Lauren went from barely getting an overhand server over the new to jump serves!
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They won the first match in 2 sets — 25-11, 25-12! And the 2nd match was just as successful — 27-25 and 25-20!
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The third game was more of a fight… won 1st set 28-16, lost 2nd set 22-25, and came back to win the 3rd set… 15-10!
Day 2
The girls went into day 2 with a lot of confidence and excitement!
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First match was a tough fight which ended in a loss (Set 1 – loss 20-25, Set 2 – win 25-11, Set 3 – loss 15-13)
The girls were pretty down. Coach Shayne was great! He gave the girls time to be sad and then built them back up!
The 2nd match was so much better! The girls won both sets — 25-12, 25-20! It was so amazing to watch them play! It was great volleyball.
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The third match of the day was going to be a challenge. The team they were playing had 4 wins and 1 loss… just like them. The girls were ready!
They won both sets — 25-15, 25-23 !!
During the 2nd set, Lauren had a 6 server run… all jump servers… with one of the serves being an ACE! I was the proudest mom in the whole place.
She has worked so hard to improve and be a better volleyball player and at that moment she was a shining star!
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Day 3 – Playoffs
The girls were excited. The girls were nervous. Playoffs was going to be tough… one loss and you’re out!
The team had their ups and downs during their last game. They were playing a team that they beat on the first day, but that other team must have found their grove and by day 3 they came into their own.
We lost in 3 sets — 25-19, 13-25, 10-15.
There were a lot of tears.
But I made sure to remind Lauren of how far she has come. Personally, Lauren was a winner. The photo below is a pretty cool example of what she can do!
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A huge thanks to Coach Shayne for his amazing leadership. The way that he was able to work with a group of girls with varying strengths, encourage the girls when they were down, and have a lot of fun is really appreciated from the view of a parent. I am very happy that Lauren was able to learn as much as she did from him.
Shayne is setting out to make his own personal best… he’s on the path to being a police officer! And he’s going to be a very good one!
The end
The provincial championship is the end of the season. Some of the division 1 teams are headed off to nationals in Calgary and we will cheer loudly from Ontario.
The club will have an end-of-the-year banquet at the outdoor courts so that should be a lot of fun!
Congrats Lauren on your amazing season! Dad, Rach and I are so proud of how hard you worked and you should be proud of all you achieved!
