The Subzero 17U girls volleyball team travelled to Spruce Grove, Alta., to compete in the Over The Top 17U Women’s Tournament on Saturday. The team faced some stiff competition but came away from the tournament with a bronze medal around their neck.

For the girls, it was their first tournament of the season.

“It is not typical to travel this early,” said coach Gary Seeley. “We wanted to get the girls out earlier. It was a good building block.”

The team played five games that were best of three sets. In their first game, Subzero took on the top team in the tournament, taking a set from them, “we definitely earned their respect early,” said Seeley.

In the first few games, Seeley said the speed of the game was an adjustment for the girls.

“The speed of the game is so fast,” said Seeley. “The south players are really skilled. They run quicks and 31’s to the middle, and shoots out to power.”

As the weekend of volleyball progressed, the team picked up their play.

“They responded great to the speed the other teams played at,” said Seeley.

“We used every timeout as a coaching experience and gave feedback to what we saw. Our offence sped up as the weekend went on, and our offence really began to click.”

Seeley said the reason he and the coaching staff wanted to get out to a tournament early was to focus on development and give everyone an opportunity for more touches.

“We did fair play for everybody,” said Seeley. “The intent was to get everybody into the games and focus on positive development because we don’t get to go Outside to often.”

Seeley said to a southern team a bronze medal wouldn’t mean much, but to a Whitehorse team, bronze is a really big deal.