Cyclone satisfied with silver
Before the season began, E.L. Crossley senior boys volleyball coach Michelle Gibson wrote down her expectations for the campaign and sealed her thoughts in an envelope.
Fast forward to minutes before the Cyclone squared off versus host the Chippewa Secondary School Trojans of North Bay in the OFSAA AA boys gold medal match, Gibson revealed her goal to the team.
“My goal for them as a team was to come away with an OFSAA medal, I thought they were definitely good enough to do that,” Gibson said. “We always set our goals and play our games point-by-point and don’t like to get too ahead of ourselves.”
The Cyclone dropped a 14-25, 26-24, 16-25, 19-25 decision in the final, but still came home with a silver, the first medal for a boys volleyball team from Crossley at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championships.
“For me, 100 per cent it was good enough,” Gibson said. “For sure, the boys were disappointed but chatting with them I told them I was proud of how they did. It was a different season, a short season and no tournaments, but they really rose to the occasion and played some excellent volleyball.
“I’m happy for them of course. Everyone would have loved a gold medal, but we’ll take the silver.”
The Cyclone went undefeated in pool play, losing only one match, before defeating Sacred Heart High School of Walkerton 25-13, 25-18, 25-20 in the semifinal. Crossley topped Westgate of Thunder Bay 25-11, 25-21, 25-22 in the quarter-final.
Gibson said the Cyclone were exhausted heading into the final match versus the No. 7-seed Trojans.
“They were a good team,” said Gibson, who was assisted by Rich Doucet and Ryan Petrov. “I think maybe we ran out of a little bit of steam. We had a player who wasn’t feeling his best, a starter, so he went out as did as best as he could. I think maybe we were one player short, I think we could have definitely taken them to five.
“Going back, I had some of the boys look at the footage, they were definitely beatable. I’m sure in hindsight they were, but it just wasn’t in the cards for us.”
Gibson said there are no regrets.
“I always said the entire team gave 100 per cent, including the boys who were on the bench in those final games,” she said. “None of them have a voice, they cheered their hearts out. Chippewa was a very loud and energetic team and our boys tried to match that.
“Our goal was to have fun and give to the best level we could. I would say on the drive home, everybody was exhausted.”
Members of the Cyclone are: Cole Bedard, Connor Bleich, Preston Darling, Josh Gibson, Kayden Gyugyei, Samuel Jeffery, Lukas Klassen, Alex Lafferty, Aiden Lahn, Joshua Larochelle, Matthew McNeil, L.J. Newton, Seth Ozog, Aakash Senthil and Jason Sviergula.
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