Trio Of Athletes Compete At Nationals

Three Chatham-Kent athletes travelled to Edmonton to play in Volleyball Canada’s 18U National Championship tournament earlier this month. The trio, Andrea Crow, Mattea Deleary, and Abby Sluys are members of the South County Bandits, based out of Windsor. Crow and Sluys are Outside Hitters, and Deleary is a Right Side Hitter.

The Bandits entered the tournament ranked 10th in the country. They started pool play on Friday May 5th, defeating DRVC(Durham, ON) 25-21, 25-21 and Pandas (AB) 25-16, 16-25, 15-8 and losing the final match of the day to Briercrest (SK) 25-15, 19-25 16-18. All teams were re-pooled for Saturday. The Bandits faced a tough Pakmen (Toronto), losing 20-25, 16-25. The Pakmen ended up winning the National Championship on Sunday. They also faced Airborne (BC), losing a tough match, 25-27, 20-25. The final match on Saturday, the Bandits battled another tough team from BC, BCO Elite. They pulled out a victory, winning 25-22, 27-25. On Sunday, it was the play off round, which was a single knock out format. The Bandits faced a scrappy team from Alberta, the Cougars in the quarterfinals of Tier 2. Pulling out the win in three sets, 20-25, 25-19, 15-7, the Bandits moved on to the semi-finals, having to played a tough team from Toronto, the Leaside Lightning. The Bandits fought hard, pushing both sets within two points, but fell short, losing 25-27, 23-25. They ended the tournament with a match record of 4-4, and placing 11th (out of 95) in the country.

At the provincial level, the Bandits competed in the OVA Championship April 21-23 in Waterloo. Entering that tournament they were ranked 10th (out of 92 teams), the Bandits finished the provincial tournament with a match record of 5-2, and moved up in rankings to 5th overall. The provincial rankings assist in the National rankings, which had 9 Ontario Teams in the top 16.

This was the end of club volleyball for the trio. Deleary and Sluys have played together since 14U, and the trio has played together since 15U. They played with the Chatham Ballhawks until last season, then joined up with the Bandits for their final club season. But this is not the end of their volleyball careers, just the end of a chapter. Andrea Crow has signed with University of Waterloo, to study Chemical Engineering. Abby Sluys has signed with Redeemer University College in Ancaster, to study Honours Major in Applied Social Sciences. Mattea Deleary has committed with Fanshawe College, to study Honours Bachelor in Early Childhood Leadership.