Staff
There’s no more room for error.
The Muskie senior boys’ volleyball team opened the OFSAA ‘AA’ championships with a 2-0 loss (25-18/25-16) to Ecole secondaire catholique Franco-Cité Falcons (Ottawa) in their best-of-three match in Pool ‘B’ action this morning in Dryden.
“It took a while for the boys to get going but once they did, they went on a roll in earning a number of points,” noted Muskie coach Kirsten Talsma.
“Unfortunately, they still came up short.
“Again in the second set, the boys had a slow start and could not regain any momentum,” she added.
With only the top two in each four-team pool advancing to the quarter-finals, the 14th-ranked Muskies faced a do-or-die showdown against the eighth-seeded Dr. G.W. Williams Secondary School Wildcats (Aurora) this afternoon.
The outcome was unavailable at press time.
The Muskies then will wrap up Pool ‘B’ play tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. against the ninth-ranked Cobourg Collegiate Institute Wolves (Cobourg).
There is a consolation side for teams that don’t advance out of their pools.
Fort High never led in its first match at the all-Ontarios since 1999 this morning, but gave an impressive showing in the opening set against the third-seeded Falcons.
Early serve reception problems put the black-and-gold in an early 10-5 hole.
But service mistakes by Franco-Cité, coupled with stronger play at the net by the Muskies, pulled the underdogs to within a point at 16-15.
The Falcons ramped up their offensive attack after that, though, to win five of the next six points.
They later won the set with a pinpoint service ace down the line.
The second set presented more of the same problems for the Muskies as their first passes off serves didn’t allow them to set up on offence consistently.
After it being tied 3-3 early, the Falcons exploded for a 15-5 run to go up 18-8—forcing Talsma to call time-out.
The Muskies settled down briefly, putting together a 4-0 run to climb within seven points.
But frequent misses throughout the second set with their usually lethal kill shots, including one that sailed long to end the match, kept Fort High from completing the comeback.
