There's a strong Tri-City contingent on this year's Team B.C. women's volleyball squad preparing for the Canada Games.
Alessandra Gentile of Heritage Woods Secondary, Terry Fox's Katie Devaney and Nicole Cornwall of Charles Best will suit up for Team B.C. at the Games which will be held Aug. 2-18 in Sherbrooke, Que.
"I'm really excited. It's an experience in itself just to go and be a part of something that big," said Gentile, a five-foot-10 setter and right-side hitter.
Gentile, who helped lead the Kodiaks to a silver medal at this year's B.C. high school AAAA championship, will go on to play for the UBC Thunderbirds in the fall.
The three have spent the past two weeks training in Kelowna as part of the 14-member Team B.C. roster.
"I'm the youngest player on the team so I'm just soaking in everything I possibly can, learning from the older players," said Cornwall, who will join Devaney at Trinity Western University in the fall.
Cornwall credits Emily Oxland, a setter with UBC-Okanagan, for helping her with her game during training with Team B.C.
The squad travelled down to Florida this week for the U.S.A. High Performance Championships.
"I would have to say I'm looking forward to the Florida tournament just a little more just for the volleyball side of it," said Cornwall, a five-foot-nine setter and right-side hitter.
"I just love the American feel for it, the competitiveness they have. I feel I'll learn so much from them."
Playing together is nothing new for Cornwall and Gentile.
"I've been playing with Alessandra since Grade 7," said Cornwall. "When we first started playing we went to our first practice and our moms came and we found out our moms used to play at SFU together."
The three Tri-City athletes were all named provincial all-stars. Devaney, a six-foot-one middle, helped the Fraser Valley Volleyball Club to a third-place finish at the national championships in the spring, while Gentile was named 2012 Player of the Year in a poll conducted by the coaches of B.C.'s CIS volleyball-playing schools.
"I'm a pretty humble person so I don't get too excited by it but it's definitely a confidence booster," said Gentile, who plans to brush up on her skills at the Town Centre beach courts when she returns from the Canada Games.
