After a week of training camp in North Bay, Team Ontario Red flew to Halifax to compete in the Indoor Canada Cup from July 18-21. At the same time, Ontario beach athletes headed to Edmonton to compete in the Beach Canada Cup. The Indoor event on the east coast featured 44 teams from 10 provinces and one territory, in two divisions covering both male and female athletes. Canada Cup brings together the next generation of high-performance volleyball athletes as they compete to take home national championship honours. 

Team Ontario Red girls

The Division 1 Team Ontario Red squad led by head coach Mike Albert dominated the competition, but couldn’t get the last win falling to SKU Youth Green (Saskatchewan).

Team Ontario Red's first of two Division 2 teams, guided by Jennifer Neilson, also earned a podium finish taking home the silver medal.

"Our team demonstrated early on our individual team values of purpose, selflessness, and drive. We were challenged early in pool play but were supportive and purposeful in our execution that led to some incredible team wins," said Neilson of her team's success. "This group was energetic and magnetic and that was seen through seamless transitions between court and bench, this culture is what was a driving force to our success. This group of young women are talented, charismatic, and fierce competitors and it was an incredible privilege to watch them battle to a tremendous silver medal finish."

Team Ontario's third entrant in Division 2, led by Natasha Spaling finished fourth after being defeated by Quebec 2 in a five-set match for the bronze medal (25-21, 20-25, 27-25, 22-25, 18-15).

“This was a huge learning opportunity for every team member and each athlete was able to take something valuable from the experience. We were able to form a supportive, cohesive unit very quickly and each member was able to contribute to our success on the floor,” said Spaling of her team's experience in Halifax. “Our team was relentless in the pursuit of excellence, worked hard and stayed connected through all of the obstacles that we faced in the tournament. As coaches, we are very proud of the growth of this team and the tremendous character of all of our athletes. These young women have a very bright future ahead of them.”

Team Ontario Red boys

As for the boy’s teams, the Division 1 team finished their tournament in the fifth position, while Division 2 earned a fourth-place result after playing a truncated two out of three games in the bronze medal match due to travel restrictions. 

Matthew Ragogna, head coach of Team O Red Division 2 boys, was proud of the tough work ethic his team displayed facing eight out of 11 teams in the tournament.

“Outlasting the heat, strong competition and focusing on development, the boys ended the tournament with quality matches and an amazing experience,” said Ragogna of his team following the conclusion of the event. “A big thank you to all the athletes, parents support and hosts for the amazing job and contribution to our high-performance program.”

Beach Canada Cup

In the 20U Beach Canada Cup competition it was an all Ontario affair as the men swept the podium with Jonathan Pickett/Ben Kerkhoff bringing home gold, Steven Abrams/Josh Timukas silver, and Max Losier/Luke Hyde bronze.

The team of Dana Roskic and Jasmine Safar also stood atop the podium with a gold medal for Ontario in the women’s division. They defeated the British Columbian team of Pantovic and Mutch. 

The 20U Canada Cup is an entry point program to the Beach National Team pathway provided to 20U Beach Provincial Team athletes on an annual basis. This event allowed athletes to compete against the top 20U beach athletes from each Province, in addition to taking in a 3-Star FIVB World Tour event. The FIVB Edmonton Open saw another Ontario team Sarah Pavan (Kitchener) and Melissa Humana-Paredes (Toronto) win gold while Canada’s Ben Saxton (Calgary) and Grant O’Gorman (Scarborough) finished second in the men’s event.