The North-East continues to perform well in inter-regional tournaments and earlier this month the junior volleyball national finals were held at Sporkpark at the university of East Anglia.
For the first time ever the North-East team won gold at Under-14 girls level, coached by Martin Wain. The event has teams from nine regions competing in girls U14 and U16 and boys U15 and U17.
The Under 14 team comprised of: Rachael McManus (Captain - from Nunthorpe VBC), Stef Dawson ( Acklam Grange), Emma Gordan (Nunthorpe VBC); Jenny Little (Marske VBC) and Abby Sowden (Newburn VBC in Newcastle).
All girls did their region proud and were a credit to their clubs and families.
The B team - nicknamed Go Bananas captained by Raychel Laws (Tynedale VBC) - played well against some physically stronger teams to win all their games on the Sunday and were then promoted to play against the bottom two a teams on Monday.
The games were nerve racking and produced some great thinking volleyball to produce six winning sets and three sets that where lost (15-13; 15-13 and 16-14) in nailbiting fashion.
Coach Caroline Little, said: "The girls kept their head and hearts in the games and played themselves and the region proud, we are absolutely ecstatic with this result."
Go Bananas were: Raychel Laws (captain- Tynedale VBC); Charlie Whalley and Ria Wilkinson (Marske VBC); Sarah Stutterton and Stef Collins (Acklam Grange) and Amy Rout ( Nunthorpe VBC).
The U17 lads won a place in the Super 6 and Kieron Sowden (Newcastle VBC) won a well deserved award.
The girls' Super 6 were named and for the first time our region got not only one player in Under 14 level but three in, Rachel McManus; Emma Gordan and Rachel Laws.
The Under-15 side, coached by Keith Sowden, faced the competition's eventual runners-up and lost 2-0. But with Steven Harrison, Brent Thompson and captain Thomas Loughran outstanding and Zac Sinclair, Daniel McGowan, Joel Edwards, Ryan Gray, Robert Lucas and Alistair Leigh improving with every game they eventually finished sixth.
The U17 boys, coached by Steven Talbot, started with a bang and overwhelmed both their first two opponents, East Midlands and South East. They continued their winning form against West Midlands, before disaster struck when young John Chapman, a key player, went badly over on his ankle and was out of the rest of the competition.
Kieran Sowden was chosen by all the other regions as one of the best six players of the tournament. Michael Grainger, Simon Robinson also played at the top of their game, and good performances were seen from Andrew Railton, Kieran Chandler, Robbie Bates and Damien Reed. The team finished up fifth, disappointing for the players as they were looking like a team that could win.
The Under-16 girls had a tough opening game against West Midlands finished in a draw, 25-18, 19-25. They beat East Midlands in the next game. In the third game against North West they lost the first set but bounced back to win the next set comfortably to draw and end up in second place.
The girls finished the tournament beating a strong East side 26-24 in the second set of a very tight game.
Great performances from: Jessica Smith, Vicky Archard, Sarah Naylor, Rachel Powson, Sarah Bell, Kirsty Martin, Kirsty Lang (capt) and Alex Worrall. The girls came 4th overall (coached by Martin Wain).
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