The competitive volleyball season typically ends with the provincial tournament, but some teams take their season a step further to the national level.
The Yorkton Blitz Attack U14 team hoped to carry the momentum from their fourth place finish at provincials in May to the 2010 Canadian West Open in Saskatoon.
The 64-team tournament took place in Saskatoon and featured teams from BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
The Attack found the national stage quite different from the provincial one and faced some tough competition in some of their opening games and just couldn't find the connection to finish against some teams that were the same level as the Attack.
They struggled to find their rhythm and placed fourth in their pool after dropping all three games. The repool was somewhat kinder to the Attack. They once again placed fourth, but managed to take two sets off of two of their opponents, a feat they hadn't managed in the previous round. The fourth place finish in the repool sent the Attack to play for top spot in the tournament's Division I Tier IV bracket. The playoffs brought a surge in the team's confidence, which brought an improvement to their game, including their serving and team play. At the conclusion of the playoffs, fourth remained the Attack's number, playing to a fourth place finish in Tier IV. In the overall standings, between Division I and II, the Attack placed 28th out of 64.
Though they recognized their team did not play to the best of their ability throughout the tournament and believed that the girls could've finished in a higher tier, coaches Darlene Shymanski and Rolanda Herschmiller were proud of their top half finish in the tournament.
They also recognize that it was the team's first trip to the national tournament and see it as a good learning curve for the future.
