Thunder U18s capture silver medal at nationals

After falling short of their goal at provincials, the Peterborough Thunder U18 Black girls volleyball team found redemption at nationals.

The Thunder came home with a Division 5 silver medal from the Volleyball Canada U18 championships in Calgary from May 18 to 20 after losing out in the quarterfinals at the Ontario championships.

Any team that participates in a provincial championship can apply for entry into nationals. The Thunder were among 32 teams competing in their division.

They went 3-3 in pool play and advanced to the quarterfinals where they earned a two-set win over SAVC U18 Shock from Alberta.

They advanced to the semifinals where they beat the Focus Phantom from British Columbia in a hard-fought three sets.

In the gold-medal match, they met their match, falling 2-0 to Makwa Vibe from Saskatchewan.

The silver was the team’s first medal of the season.

In the years when nationals are held outside of Ontario, it’s rare for Thunder teams to participate because of the cost involved.

Carrie Witt, who coached the team with Kara Kooperberg, said they resolved from the start of the season they were going to go and held a number of fundraising activities throughout the season to help offset the costs. She estimates they raised about $10,000.

In the end, it was all worth it. “First off, it was just an amazing experience to go to Calgary. Some of them have never been outside Ontario. That in itself was huge,” Witt said.

“I’m pretty sure we even had a few people who hadn’t flown so that was pretty cool for them.”

It turned out to be the highlight of their volleyball careers.

“They just played like a team. There was the one day where it didn’t matter who we put on the court, they all played well, which was amazing,” she said. “They just figured it out. It was amazing to see them come together.”

The trip wouldn’t have been possible without a lot of support.

“Being U18 it’s the last year of volleyball for a lot of these girls so it was talked about at the U17 age group about maybe doing nationals at U18,” Witt said.

“We knew from September we were going to do it. We did lots of fundraising and a tag day to help offset some of the costs. Some of these girls would never have been able to afford to do this without that. We had huge support from all our friends and families and the community.”