‘The coolest feeling ever’: Kylie Taylor returns home to Kelowna with a gold medal

It's been a month to remember for Kylie Taylor and her young volleyball career.

The Kelowna athlete made her way to Ontario earlier in the month after being selected to play on one of Team Canada’s U16 teams.

“It's been something that I've been working towards for many years with the goal of one day hopefully playing for Team Canada,” explained Taylor. “Getting that letter just felt like the biggest accomplishment in my life so far.”

The Red and White teams trained for two weeks at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., preparing to play in the Canada Cup and in a division that put them against the top provincial teams from across the country.

Taylor told KelownaNow before this year that the best result previous U16 teams had at the tournament was finishing around the middle of the standings, leading the coaches to focus on the experience.

“The goal going into it for my coaches was just to see a lot of personal team growth and just take the experience and learn lots from it,” said Taylor.

Going into game one, Team Canada White was up against Team Alberta.

“I was standing, getting ready for the serve, and I had hands on my knees ready to pass and my hands were just incredibly sweaty,” Taylor told KelownaNow.

After the first few points, Taylor said that she then became entirely focused on the game, cancelling out all the outside aspects of the game.

The team won their first game and the second and the third, going undefeated the entire round robin and playoffs, and setting themselves up for a rematch against Team Alberta.

“We knew that over the course of the tournament, they had improved a lot as a team.”

Taylor and her teammates won the first set of the match, but then Team Alberta fought back and won two sets in a row.

For the first time in the tournament, Team Canada White had their backs on the wall and had lost two sets in a match.

They fought back and forced a fifth set, entering uncharted waters for this dominant team.

“It was a new thing for us, we weren't really sure what to expect, we had never prepared for a fifth set, so we definitely were a little nervous,” said Taylor.

But as they had done this entire tournament, they fought hard and won.

“We saw the ball hit the ground and we just all started screaming and jumping, and we all collapsed to the ground and our teammates on the bench came running and we were all of a sudden one big dog pile,” said Taylor.

It was a special moment for Taylor as her family was there to celebrate after they had flown out to watch her play.

“Such a cool experience to get to make new friends and meet new people who contributed to my success as a player and also the success of our whole team,” she said.

Taylor says that she hopes to use this experience in her upcoming volleyball season with her school and club teams, and maybe one day play on the senior women’s national team.