Single day OVA (Ontario Volleyball Association) tournaments can be extremely unforgiving.

Fighting tooth and nail to secure top spot in Pool A in the morning draw of the 18U Girls McGregor Cup – Championship B playdown in Hamilton a little over a week ago, the Northern Chill 18U Smashers Girls lowered their guard, ever so slightly, just for one match – and very quickly found themselves relegated to a fifth place finish in a field of nine teams.

Very little to complain about in the morning as the Sudbury girls defeated the South County Bandits Select Hawkeyes (Windsor) 25-23, 25-22 before grinding out a tough 25-20, 22-25, 16-14 victory over the Oakville Thunder Shock.

Their first place pool finish would leave them awaiting the winner of B3 vs C3 in what would seem to be a favourable quarter-final draw. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case as the Caspian Surge from Newmarket surprised the Chill, 18-25, 25-18, 6-15.

Despite the disappointed, the local crew recovered to close out the event on a winning note, going three sets in taking down the Phoenix Talons from Toronto, 25-20, 22-25, 15-8.

The 2024-2025 edition of the Northern Chill 18U Smashers gathers the volleyball talents of Andréa Bernard, Selena Sauve, Reece Crane, Emma Perreault, Kaylee Seguin, Abby Laurin, Kayiesha Thomas, Olivia Nicholls, Camille Barr and Jasmine Mills, under the tutelage of head coach Sheldon Root, assistant coach Jason Evans and team manager Sylvie Bernard.