It was a triumphant homecoming for Mark Isfeld grad Ashley Simpkins.
Playing for the Campell River Crush U18 girls volleyball team this season after two great years down south with the Victoria Titans, Simpkins and the Crush captured this year’s Island Club Championship last weekend in Victoria.
The Crush was unstoppable in the first match against the Powell River Aces. Campbell River attacked and served with authority in winning easily, 25-4, 25-2.
Everyone played well, said coach Terry Philp. Megan Oakley, playing libero for an injured Janine Branchi, did a great job on defence while Brechan Campbell went on an extremely long serving run to take charge of the first set. Power hitters Sophie Cameron and Simpkins made consistent kills each shot, and right side Keltie Pike was strong at the net.
In the semifinal, the Crush knocked off Victoria 25-15, 25-12. “In both sets we started off slowly and I had to call early time outs to regroup the girls,” said Philp. “They stayed composed and went back to the plan of being aggressive.”
Setter Rhaya Howich had an awesome day as she really hustled, ran a great offence and served well. “The girls were playing with maturity and coolness as they took an impressive lead in both games,” Philp said.
The final featured Nanaimo and the Crush. This game was the much anticipated match-up for the tourney. The two teams have battled in previous tournaments and Nanaimo had really improved. The Crush girls knew it would be their toughest match of the tournament.
The match went three sets. In all three games, the Crush was in a deficit and had to claw out wins. Showing they had the desire, they never lost their game for long, Philp said.
The scores were 25-19, 19-25 and 15-11. In the third set, the Crush was down 10-4 when Philp called a time out because the girls were playing really tight and making too many mental errors.
Crush then got the side out as Simpkins went back to the line and began serving bullets. This made it difficult for Nanaimo to launch any type of attack and put the Crush up 13-11.
Kelsey Bergey and Campbell got a few key blocks that really frustrated Nanaimo. The last few points included two hard kills from power hitter Cameron who was determined to put the set away. Simpkins played amazing defence and was one of the go-to hitters of the tournament, Philp added.
The team will spend the next few weeks preparing for the Provincial and National championships being held over on the mainland. “We have lots to work on, but the girls are really excited to be Island champs,” said Philp.
– Campbell River Crush
