Congratulations to Dan Caverly / Ben Chow and Megan McNamara / Nicole McNamara who all came away with medals at the 2013 Canada Games in Sherbooke. All four teams (M/W Indoor, M/W beach) have now won medals at the Games.
In the Women’s competition, twins Nicole and Megan McNamara at only 16 years old are the youngest competitors in the 21U competition but that certainly did not slow them down! Last year’s 18U National Champions won a bronze medal at the ClearlyContacts.ca Open in July and continued their winning ways at the Canada Games. Having lost to the host Quebec team in Pool Play, Megan and Nicole found themselves in a quarter-final match against Nova Scotia, which they came back to win comfortably: 21-16, 21-12. The pair, who train with Sideout Beach Club, then had to face the same Quebec team who had previously beat them in Pool Play in the semi-finals. With a noisy home crowd, the match was a tough test and BC struggled to start, losing the 1st set 16-21. The McNamaras rallied, however; showing their trademark mental strength – keeping errors low and forcing their opponents to make mistakes. They edged the final two sets 21-13 and 15-13 to set up the Gold medal final against Ontario’s Bukovec and Wooley. The sisters finally met their match in the gold medal game, falling to the more experienced Ontario team 21-18, 21-16. A great silver medal performance for Megan and Nicole! This weekend the sisters will look to make history at the 2013 National Championships. It will be the first Senior Division 1 National Championship and they will look to become the youngest players ever to finish the season ranked in Canada’s top ten.
In the Men’s competition, Ben Chow and Daniel Caverley (also part of Side Out Beach) have had a dream tournament – firstly going 4-0 in pool play without dropping a single set along the way. Their pool play results gave them a bye directly into the semis where they also faced the home side Quebec. The home crowd support didn’t even seem to register for BC as Ben and Dan blazed to a 21-9 first set victory followed by a tighter 21-17 victory margin in the second. The pair recently placed 3rd at the BC Pro Provincials and 5th at the ClearlyContacts.ca Open in July. In the gold medal match against Ontario’s Grabovsky and Kazhamiaka, Ben and Dan continued their winning ways, taking it in a tight three sets 21-18, 15-21, 15-12. Ben will move on to play at UBC this fall and will look to add another National Championship to his growing resume. Dan Caverly will return for another year at Capilano College and look to win another PacWest championship.
Watch archived matches here:
http://canadagames.tv/Home/SportsEvents?sport=Beach%20Volleyball
BC Games News Release – Ben Chow Named Flag Bearer for Closing Ceremonies!
