Patriots crowned SOSSA champions
The Saint Paul junior girls volleyball team capped an excellent season by defeating St. Jean de Brebeuf in the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association championship game last week.
“Everyone always asks who our MVP is? We have 15 MVPs. All of these girls are the reason this team has had such amazing success. They always brought great energy on and off the court whether they were part of the starting six or not,” said Kathy Carter, who coached the team along with Kristin McDonald. “Without this camaraderie and depth, the team doesn’t exist. Kristin and I have been blessed with these talented volleyball players and have had such amazing success and such an enjoyable coaching experience. We always pushed them to work a little harder to better their teammates. These girls and the support from their parents made it possible to have a full schedule and our only regret is that there isn’t an OFSSA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations). Couldn’t be prouder of this group.”
After sweeping Smithville Christian 3-0 in the SOSSA semifinals, the Patriots won the opening game of the SOSSA final. After losing the second game 25-22, Saint Paul set the stage for the clinching fourth game with a 25-15 win in the third game.
“We knew they weren’t going away. We needed to clean up our errors and play high percentage points. We were down 13-3 in the fourth and needed to change something quickly. I called a timeout to try to throw off the server and told the girls we needed to start chucking our points,” Carter said. “We needed to win two-thirds for the next few series. We won the next three in a row which felt like eternity. And then started picking off one point at a time playing our style of aggressive tempo-setting volleyball. We came back to 13-13 and traded points back and forth until we took the lead at 18-17. We hung in by a one or two until 24-21 and their coach called a timeout out. This was great opportunity for us to set up a play. We had Jordyn Gavin serving and I need to take a blocker away from one of our best hitters. So we called a middle quick fake (selling it verbally and physically) to allow Ini Abe to finish the point for a 3-1 victory.”
Carter felt there were a number of factors which made the team successful.
“It was their hard work, team unity, commitment to each other to strive for more at each practice and willingness to learn from the beginning. We always tried to present opportunities in practice that would present as game situations.”
The Patriots went 7-0 in Niagara Catholic Athletic Association league play before knocking off Saint Francis in the semifinals and Holly Cross in the final. In tournament play, Saint Paul won both the senior and junior Patriots Invitationals and made it to the semifinals of the A.N. Myer and Eden tournaments where they lost to triple A schools.
“The highlight was going undefeated all season (against AA squads) and realizing that we were able to compete with AAA schools,” Carter said.
Members of the team were Ini Abe, Jordyn Gavin, Yzabella B-Mariano, Mary Yuan, Sarah Babin, Abby Jackson, Mia Bomberry, Antonella Lettieri, Morgan Taylor, Madison Crocker, Madison Deprez, Brooke Macintyre, Emersyn Ruffrano, Maleah Paul, Camilla Montemurro, Julia Zajac and Riyah Tham.
