The U16 Blaze had a disappointing showing at the Western Canadian Open last weekend, finishing 29th out of 32 teams in division one.
The Western Canadian Open, held in Calgary, Alta. during the May long weekend, was host to 255 teams from B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
The tournament was run out of the Calgary Olympic Oval, which was used for the speed skating events during the 1988 Olympics.
Inside this enormous facility there were 22 volleyball courts set up for the tournament, as well as courts in three nearby University of Calgary gyms.
The U16 girls' category was the largest, with 115 teams competing in three divisions.
The Blaze qualified for division one, which saw the top 32 teams competing over the three-day event.
"The tournament format used in this event was somewhat different from what we see in most other events," said coach Quinn Campbell. "It is extremely difficult for Volleyball Canada to compare teams from different provinces and rank the tournament accurately, so a 'power pool' format is used."
Using this format, teams played a round robin in loosely ranked pools of four on Saturday. The results from these pools seeded the teams into the power pools for Sunday, where, once again, a round robin format was used. The results from the power pools of Sunday seeded the teams into four tiers for the final round of playoffs on Monday.
The Blaze started pool play on Saturday, playing the Storm from Brandon, Man., the Wolves from Grande Prairie, Alta. and the Lakers from Meadow Lake, Sask. The Blaze came out flat, finishing third in their pool with a 1-3 record. On Sunday in the power pool, the Blaze played the Nanaimo Express, Kamloops Demons and Queens from Red Deer, Alta."Our play on Sunday didn't improve and we ended up in fourth place," said Campbell. "Making it even more difficult to accept was that all three matches went to three sets and were very close. We just couldn't get any breaks and we still weren't playing near our top form."
As a result of the teams poor play on Saturday and Sunday, the Blaze were relegated to tier four in division one. They played Karma from Vegreville, Alta in the quarter-final of the single elimination playoff.
"We came out playing better in this match but couldn't maintain any momentum," Campbell said. "We lost in another tough three-set match. Overall, it was not the result we had hoped for. We had demonstrated an ability to play competitively with the top teams in B.C. and we saw that they were competitive with the top teams at this tournament."
