Finishing third in a three-way tie on Power Pool day was already bad luck for the Northern Chill 18U girls at provincial championship weekend. Drawing a playoff opponent that posed a particularly tough match-up the next morning simply made matters worse.

All of which spoiled a tournament performance that initially held promise for the local crew, who entered the Division 3 playdowns ranked third in a field of twenty teams. The Sudbury girls lived up to expectations on day one, downing the Chatham Ballhawks (25-12, 25-23), the Lindsay Invasion (25-16, 25-17) and the Ottawa Valley Vikings Marauders (25-8, 25-18).

An early stumble proved costly on day two as the Chill dropped their opening match, 23-25, 19-25 to Kingston VC Red, before getting back on track with victories over both the Clarington Grizzlies (25-20, 25-22) and the Peel Selects (17-25, 25-17, 15-8).

With Clarington finishing without a win at 0-3, the tie-breaking formula was required for the remaining three teams, all at 2-1, with the northern Ontario squad sliding into third. That would mean an early Sunday battle with the Collingwood Black Diamonds, the very same opponent that had swept them at both the Furgani Cup and the Burgani Cup in the latter stages of the 2018-2019 season.

That trend would continue, much to the dismay of the locals, as Collingwood eliminated Sudbury 25-13, 21-25, 10-15, working their way through to the final four before losing in the bronze medal encounter.

Completing their Northern Chill careers as part of the 18U team this year were Jayden Rivers, Sydney Koehler, Dara Desrochers, Erin Gaffney, Jaime Schweyer, Kate Dugdale, Mallory Frantz, Ryann Hudson, Taylor Bailey, head coach Heather Hastie and assistant coach Kristen Sheffield.