Joey Payeur
Amy Wilson-Hands always has wanted to expedite her team’s development process by playing the best competition available.
She and her troops literally are going to get that chance.
The reigning NorWOSSA and NWOSSAA champion Muskie senior girls’ volleyball team has been seeded 16th in the 20-team field at the OFSAA ‘AA’ championship that kicks off Monday in Belleville.
Among the other four teams joining Fort High in Pool ‘A’ are the top-ranked Riverside Rebels (Windsor).
“All we can do is play our game,” said Wilson-Hands, who will lead the Muskies into battle along with co-coaches Shana Windigo and Terry McMahon.
“I am not reading too much into the rankings as any game can go either way at any time,” she remarked.
“Many teams will take us for granted because we are coming from the north but I think we will surprise a lot of them.
“Our goal at the beginning of the season was to win NorWOSSA and NWOSSAA and make it to OFSAA,” added Wilson-Hands.
“We reached all those goals so anything that happens from this point in is a bonus.
“Regardless of the outcome, this is great experience for our volleyball program and the coaching staff is proud of our season accomplishments,” she said.
The black-and-gold certainly won’t be easing into the tournament groove.
First up is sxith-ranked St. Mary’s Catholic Secondary School (town unknown as of press time) on Monday at 8 a.m. (all times Central), followed by an 11 a.m. clash with Riverside.
Then on Tuesday, the Muskies will face the 20th-ranked Streetsville Tigers (Mississauga) at 7:30 a.m. before finishing pool play at 10:30 a.m. against the 11th-seeded Lockerby Vikings (Sudbury).
The top two teams in each of the four pools will move on to the championship quarter-finals Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.
The third- and fourth-place finishers, meanwhile, will begin the consolation quarter-finals at 3:30 p.m.
The consolation semi-finals go Wednesday at 8 a.m., followed by the championship semi-finals at 10 a.m.
The consolation final goes at noon, with the bronze-medal match at 2 p.m. and the gold-medal game at 4 p.m.
