Lucas Punkari
With the NorWOSSA champion Dryden Eagles already having earned a berth to the all-Ontarios thanks to their silver medal-winning performance at last year’s ‘AA’ event, the Muskie senior girls’ volleyball squad had a second chance to advance the provincial championship as they squared off with the St. Ignatius Falcons (Thunder Bay) in the best-of-three NWOSSAA showdown here over the weekend.
Unfortunately for the black-and-gold, they were unable to parlay that second chance to their advantage, falling to the Falcons in four sets on both Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.
“It definitely hurts,” Muskie Mikaela Kroeker said after Saturday’s game.
“It was the last year for myself and some of the other players, and we really wanted to go to OFSAA,” she noted.
On the other side of the court, the Falcons were jubilant about being able to head to Ottawa on March 8-9, which had been a lengthy process for many of their players.
“We’ve been working at this for four years and we never thought that we would actually get this far, so we’re really excited,” enthused Falcons’ captain Vanessa Masters.
“We all really bonded together well right off the start, and our communication was really good this year, which was really the key in allowing us to control our ups and downs and stay level headed,” she reasoned.
In a scenario that seemed to repeat itself during the course of the weekend, the Muskies jumped out to quick leads at the start of their sets, but the Falcons would begin to roar back and dominate the rest of the way.
“That’s something that has been going on all season for us,” lamented Muskie head coach Duane Roen.
“We start off really strong, and we finish off the games strong, but we just have those issues in the middle of the game,” he noted.
After grabbing a slim lead near the halfway point of the first set Friday afternoon, the Muskies watched as the Falcons stormed back for an eventual 25-15 victory.
The second set saw the Muskies jump out to an early 7-2 lead, but the Falcons scored five unanswered points to seize the lead before sealing a 25-16 victory.
Fort High again moved out in front in the third set, leading 14-9 at one point. But unlike the previous two sets, the home team was able to hold off the visitors to win 25-22.
Any momentum the Muskies may have had was squashed in the fourth set, however, as the Falcons jumped out to a 15-5 lead en route to a 25-18 set victory and the 1-0 series lead.
“What I found with this team that we faced this weekend is that it didn’t matter where we put the ball,” Roen remarked.
“They were able to get their arm out in a positive way that worked things into their favour, and we just couldn’t get to the ball fast enough to get it back over,” he explained.
The first set in Game 2 on Saturday morning proved to be tighter affair as the Falcons edged the Muskies 25-20. But the second set saw St. Ignatius jump out to a 9-1 lead before winning the set 25-17.
“We usually seem to have a bit of a rough start to most of our sets,” noted Falcons’ coach Lesley Masters.
“Our girls just keep themselves level-headed out there, and that allows them to get back in almost every set and have their emotions stay in check throughout the game.”
With their season on the line, and an 18-11 deficit staring them in the face, the Muskies left everything they had out on the court in a dynamite third set, which they eventually won 33-31 after trading set point with the Falcons multiple times.
“We really wanted to win that set,” Kroeker said.
“We knew this was our last chance at winning, and that our season was on the line, so we went after every ball but we should have been doing that right from the start,” she admitted.
Despite being completely worn out after that stressful third set, both teams put on some good rallies in the early stages of the fourth set before the Falcons jumped ahead 19-11.
Fort High was able to stay alive for a little while longer but when Megan Veniot’s serve hit the net with the score sitting at 24-15, it officially brought an end to the Muskies’ season.
“It was a strong year for us, with some ups and downs, but I think the way that we won the third game on Saturday is something that will be a great memory for the Grade 12s to take with them,” Roen said.
“The girls this year had their own different talent that they brought to the court, so to make it as far as we did is something that I’m really happy to be a part of,” Kroeker added.
