The Windermere Extreme, a local womens volleyball club, smashed their way to a third place finish at a B.C. Volleyball Association tournament in Vancouver Dec. 15.
They played in five matches, with three of the matches requiring a third game to give the Extreme a total of 13 games. Each regular game goes to 25 points, and each tie-breaker goes to 15.
"Thats a lot of volleyball for one day," says team member Jan Budge. "Your arms do get kind of sore after that."
The Extreme have been playing together for a number of years at the provincial level, and have 10 practising players. Only seven came to the Vancouver tournament, which meant the team only had one spare.
Laura Wetaski and Amy Moore stepped in for the injured Carlee Howell and did "an amazing job of setting," says Budge. "Georgina Tituss experience was evident as she pounded down several strategic kills while Jodi Rutten and Wanda Chalk continued to put up impenetrable blocks."
In the back court, Erica Swanstrom and Budge kept the Extreme in the game with a number of good digs.
"Were actually quite competitive," says Budge. "Most of us have university or club backgrounds, higher than high school, to play at this level.
"We could have won this tournament. The team that went on to win we had already beaten in the round robin, and we missed getting in the finals to teams we could have beaten. The games were really close."
Windermere Extreme had already played in one tournament, in October, finishing fourth.
They will play in one tournament a month, hoping to improve their seeding in the league, until the provincials in March.