Eden sweeps girls volleyball finals
The Eden Flyers senior girls volleyball team captured the Niagara Region High School Athletic Zone 4 AAA title in dramatic fashion this week.
After dropping the first two sets 25-23 and 26-24, the Flyers rallied by winning the next three sets 25-22, 25-23 and 16-14 against the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs.
“The teams were very evenly matched and playing their best volleyball of the season,” Eden head coach Bill Markham said. “It was also the first time we could have fans in the building since COVID started so, the importance of the match, having excited fans in the stands, and the quality of play made it a game that I will never forget.”
Eden will finish the season with a perfect 8-0 record because the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association and Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championships were cancelled. That made the zone final even more special.
“Honestly, it felt like an OFSSA final,” Markham said. “Sir Winston Churchill was such a strong team and it required our very best. The energy in the gym and the fun rivalry made this a great way to end the season.”
The win capped what was clearly a difficult season.
“COVID made practising and our schedule very unpredictable. We just made the best of every opportunity by choosing to stay positive and focusing on our team goals. You can’t always choose your circumstances, but you can choose how to respond to them.”
Markham loved that his team showed up at every practice willing to work hard, knowing that it had a shortened season and no opportunity to go to OFSSA.
“One thing I love about our program is how hard we work at having a team first mindset,” he said. “This team was willing to work really hard at doing whatever was necessary for the team to succeed even if it meant accepting a role that they were not used to.”
Overcoming plenty of adversity is what made the 2021-22 version of the Flyers special.
“We lost two starters at the beginning of the year to injuries and we had to get really creative as a result. This year I used every substitution allowed in all of our critical games,” Markham said. “It was the ability of our athletes to accept their roles, celebrate regardless of who was getting playing time, and a refusal to quit that made this team special. We need every single athlete to give us their very best and that is exactly what they did when it mattered most.
Members of the team, coached by Markham, Virginia Kent and Brenna Toner, were Hannah Bennett, Kyrah Cameron, Olivia Davidson, Kaity Doyle, Brianna Dykstra, Lily Felsbourg, Maxine Felsbourg, Baley Goertz, Caileigh Hanna, Keifer Janzen, Roxy Lewis, Kaya McLean, Hannah Seo, Reese Vanderkooy, Mackenna Vanderwal, Shelby Wensink and Ava Willms.
With most of the team returning, the team should be strong again in 2022-23.
JUNIOR FLYERS PREVAIL
Like its senior counterpart, the Eden Flyers junior girls volleyball team completed a perfect season by sweeping Grimsby 3-0 in the NRHSAA Zone 4 AA final.
Eden went 8-0 in regular season before defeating Grimsby in the final.
“The Eden junior girls were an outstanding team of hardworking, motivated and driven athletes. They came to practice ready to work hard and push each other to improve,” coach Beth Schulz said. “The girls competed with each other in practice and this carried over into our play against other schools.
“As a coach, I am proud of the way they performed and supported each other. It was amazing to be back in the gym to work with this exception team of girls. Thank-you to everyone who made this season possible.”
Members of the team were Jaelyn Cameron, Hailey Czegeny, Mattea Di Bacco, Hailey Epp, Madison Haverkamp, Allie Schultz, Anna Harmsworth, Sara Hepworth, Lauren Janzen, Ava Klassen, Anne Kim, Ella Landry, Alyssa Nieuwets, Iye Ogunkeye, Emma Richardson, Kiara van Steekelenburg and Renee Engel.
