Cyclone punch ticket to OFSAA
Hillary Haining just couldn’t envision ending her high school volleyball career with a loss.
The 17-year-old, Grade 12 student remembered what it was like last year when the E.L. Crossley Cyclone fell short of their goal of making it to OFSSA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations) and was determined to turn things around this time.
“Last year we didn’t make it and I really want to this year, so I thought about it a lot, that I wanted to make sure I made it on my last year,” Haining said after the Cyclone defeated the Lakeshore Catholic Gators 25-10, 25-17, 22-25, 25-19 to capture the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association (SOSSA) AA championship Thursday at Holy Cross.
“I came in confident. I feel like our team really works well together and I knew we’d be really loud and that we’d all come together.”
Haining, who plays at the club level with the Niagara Rapids, was all smiles on the court after posing with her teammates and coaches for pictures with their SOSSA medals.
“It means a lot to me because all of these girls have grown up together and we all started in elementary school together,” she said. “So it’s been really cool to be able to bring our way up and really have perseverance in that last set.”
Haining was named team captain this year, a role she takes very seriously.
“I was really honoured to be asked to do that and it was with my two best friends too (Mila Burattini, Kali Hill),” she said. “I think I’m definitely just being kind of a leader and making sure I’m encouraging everyone and bringing everyone up. And I think because of me being a middle and a captain, I just want to make sure that I’m constantly lifting others up and telling people what to do that don’t have my experience.”
Crossley co-coach Jessica Kropac said Haining has more than held her own as captain.
“Larry is one of the best leaders that we’ve seen, which is amazing,” Tropic said. “She’s great with building the other girls’ confidence. A really specific example is during our Dundas Valley game. One of our girls that’s still developing got the game point on her serve. We subbed her in for Larry, which is a great sacrifice from the team captain’s perspective to be off the court during the game point and Larry was still sitting on the bench trying to help her with positioning. She’s just such a giver and she genuinely just wants every girl to have the best experience here, which is awesome.”
Kropac, who coaches with Michelle Gibson and Micheala Halstead, said the SOSSA title was a bit of a surprise.
“I am so proud. It’s one of the unique seasons where OFSAA has always been in the back of our minds, but I think oftentimes it’s a driving goal for us and we didn’t really mention it as much,” she said. “We were kind of just watching where the season went.
“I’m super proud of how they pulled it off. I think everyone performed probably some of the best volleyball that we’ve seen them play today, which is what you want. I think we’ve had a couple surprises from a couple girls that haven’t really been playing a ton that got to get out and really crush a couple of balls. It’s really nice to see when you’re developing players they kind of reach their peak at the right time.”
Kropac said the Cyclone plan to take it step-by-step at OFSAA, which will be held in North Bay.
“We have always had the mentality, and I get a lot of this from Michelle because she is such an amazing co-coach, we’re really trying to do a point-by-point game,” Kropac said. “We try to go up there with the mindset of we’re going to do the best that we can. You don’t really know until you get up there. They’re all teams we haven’t played before. So we have to wait, see our seedings, and set a realistic goal.”
Crossley defeated Dundas Valley 25-11, 25-18, 25-11 in the morning semifinal.
Members of the Cyclone are: Evangeline Bernardi, Mila Burattini, Abigail Dekorte, Myah Dellemonache, Cherith Dunn, Hillary Haining, McKenna Halsted, Kali Hill, Rachel Jeffery, Shantea Sewell, Helena Siolkowsky, Amelia Siolkowsky, McKenna Smith, Summer Trites and Sydney Wilson.
The Gators topped the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs 25-22, 25-17, 13-25, 25-11 in the other semifinal.
“These schools are a lot bigger than we are,” Lakeshore coach Tish Badawey said. “They teeter on AAA, we teeter on A. We were not expecting to come this far.
“It’s amazing. The fact we beat Sir Winston Churchill this morning, another huge school, we were ecstatic. The fact they were able to keep up the way they did, were very proud of them.”
Churchill coach Jaymi Edwards had no regrets.
“All season we’ve been a small but mighty team so we came in hoping for the best,” Edwards said. “We’ve had some illness and injuries we’ve dealt with.
“We gave it our all today. It was awesome for these kids to be here.”
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