07 September 2010

Nationals

The Canadian National Beach Championships was a three-day tournament that took place from August 27-29 at Ashbridges Bay. Kacie and I were ranked 2nd in our pool. On the first day we played three teams and didn’t drop a set. The next morning we played the top ranked team in our pool, Jamie and Liz (who are no strangers to us, having played them in the past 2 country quotas). This proved to be a really tight game, and we ended up winning in the third set with a final score of 22-20!

After a 4 hour break, we played and won our next game to advance to the quarter finals. Here we were matched up against another nationally carded team, Marie-Christine Mondor and Melanie Savoie from Quebec. This is a really strong team, and Kacie and I ended up losing the match in 2 sets. It was really disappointing, because it meant we were out of the tournament and could not advance to play in the semifinals the next day.

MC and Mel went on to win third place, Jamie and Liz ended up second, and Heather and Liz were the national champs! Congrats to everyone.

And I’d just like to thank my parents, grandparents, brother Austin, Jane, Sarah and Duda for coming to cheer us on! I really appreciate your support, so thanks!!!

The tryouts for the 2011 Beach National Team included playing in nationals as part of the process. There were also interviews and physical testing during the three days following nationals. Everyone has to try out for the team each year, even if you were on the team in the previous year. The team will be announced later this year.