Joey Payeur
Methodical, masterful, magnificent.
The Muskie senior girls’ volleyball team was all of the above in capturing the NWOSSAA crown with a 2-0 sweep of the Westgate Tigers over the weekend at Fort High.
The squad didn’t drop a set in beating the Thunder Bay champs 3-0 on Friday afternoon (25-19, 28-26, and 25-15) and again Saturday morning even more convincingly (25-10, 25-13, and 25-10).
That means the Muskies will head to the OFSAA ‘A/AA’ championships in Dryden from March 9-11—their first trip to the all-Ontarios since 2006.
“I really love this team,” enthused overjoyed Grade 12 veteran Brooke McGinnis.
“We all came together and we’re all like a family,” she noted.
“We count on each other to bring each other up and keep each other going.”
Coming off a nail-biting five-set loss to the Dryden Eagles in the NorWOSSA final there Feb. 20, the black-and-gold were determined not to let their last opportunity to make it to OFSAA slip away.
“We used that NorWOSSA loss as motivation,” explained first-year senior Alex Adrian, who had six kills and two aces against Westgate.
“It was a hard loss but we showed this weekend we wanted it and that we know we can play at this level,” she added.
Hailey McEvoy, who was sidelined by a pre-season injury last year that kept her off the team, keyed a 9-0 run in the second set Saturday by delivering six non-returned serves.
“This is awesome to go all the way to OFSAA,” she enthused.
“I’m so proud of my girls.”
For the seniors on the team, like outside hitter Carly Taggart and libero Abbi Perreault, winning their last home match of their high school careers just added to the championship experience.
“It’s even more special when you see all the support we had from the fans,” noted Taggart.
For Perreault, the OFSAA challenge is not one she plans to fear but savour.
“If we play at our level and push ourselves, we can do well,” she reasoned.
“We want to make sure we have fun, especially with it being our last year.”
The seedings and schedule for OFSAA will be announced later this week.
