There was a heat wave in Barrie on Saturday as teams faced the Blaze 16U and felt the heat! 

The day began with 2 back to back matches of 3 sets for Blaze to win their pool. Match one had a nail biter finish of 16-14 with a serve that clipped the net and dropped short to surprise the opposing team. Match two came close too with a 15-12 finish. Going into match three Blaze played three sets to melt the Northern Chill in a final set 15-10.   It took just two sets in game four to give Blaze a place in the gold medal match. The entire day was characterized by great coaching and a never give up attitude from the players. Steve strategically used timeouts to help our players regroup, refocus and get back in there and play like he knew they could. The look on his face was so worth it when the girls pulled it off with some amazing serves, passes, blocks or whatever it took to take back the game although they may have given him a few premature grey hairs as they did it. 

The final match for gold kept all the spectators on the edge of their seats as the girls fought from behind  (at least 5 points) in the third set going to game point and back to a tie several times over before finally claiming gold with an 18-14 finish. Way to go Blaze 16U. You did us proud!