Congratulation to our U14 Girls and Boys Volleyball Team
The U14 Girls and U14 Boys Volleyball teams travelled to Duisburg for their GISST which took place this past Friday, May 13th..
U14 Girls Volleyball
The Regional Volleyball GISST took place in Duisburg on Friday, with our U14 girls team joining the boys. A good way to summarize the trip would be in their well-deserved winning of the Sportsmanship Award! They were resilient in tough games, they stuck together, encouraging each other, and most impressively, between sets, practiced together with other teams to develop their skills for the next match. Their captain, Nur Basogul, led them with passion and determination, making fantastic calls and showing incredible leadership skills. This is only the start for the U14 girls team - the next GISST won't know what hit them!
U14 Boys Volleyball
On Friday, the U14 Boys Volleyball team traveled to St. George's International School in Duisburg for the first U14 Volleyball GISST since 2019. Similar to the Varsity team in October, this year's GISST, was also a regional tournament with four schools from the area.
During pool play, they won all three of their matches, ranking them first in the group and sending them into the finals.
In the finals, they lost in a hard fought and heartbreaking two sets with scores of 23-25, 24-26. It really doesn't get any closer than that.
Unfortunately, there was some added drama after the final match, when we found out that two of the six players on our opponent's team were 15 years old which is not allowed at a U14 tournament. After discussing this with the tournament director and the coaches, we decided to let them take the first place trophy home despite them offering to award it to us and we left Duisburg with the silver and our heads held high.
The ISF boys have consistently shown up to practice since January and have improved immensely. It was amazing to not only see their volleyball skills become stronger, but also to watch them grow together as a team throughout the day. Knowing that they can hold their own against teams older than them, really gives me hope for the years to come. This coach is incredibly proud and I can't wait to see what these boys will do in the future.
