Staff
First-set fortitude gave way to second-set blues for the Muskie senior girls’ volleyball team on Monday.
But with the pressure off, the black and gold delivered its best performance yesterday before fading away in their finale.
The reigning NWOSSAA champs were swept 2-0 in both their best-of-three matches on the first day of the OFSAA ‘A/AA’ championships in Dryden.
With title hopes out the window since they could not finish in the top two in their pool to advance to the championship bracket playoffs, the Muskies yesterday rallied for a 2-1 win (14-25, 25-13, and 15-8) over the previously-unbeaten No. 15-ranked Southwood Sabres (Cambridge).
With their fourth-place finish in Pool ‘C,’ the Muskies then took on the third-place L’Amoreaux Saints (Scarborough) in the consolation quarter-finals yesterday afternoon.
But it was the Saints who went marching on with a 3-0 victory (25-15, 25-13, and 25-21) to send Fort High home for the season.
The Muskies opened play Monday with a battle against the fifth-ranked General Amherst Bulldogs (Amherstburg), where Fort High—seeded 12th—stood strong in the first set to forge a 22-22 tie.
But the Bulldogs delivered the key points when they needed them, taking the next three to win the set 25-22.
That seemed to take some of the starch out of the black-and-gold, who fell 25-13 in the second set.
Then needing a win to keep their OFSAA title hopes alive, Fort High came out on fire against the No. 2-ranked Les Laser des College catholique Samuel-Genest (Ottawa) in their second match Monday.
Behind solid serving and front-row play by Alex Adrian and Carly Taggart, along with some blistering kills from Cassandra Moffitt, the Muskies has Les Laser reeling in building a 15-8 lead in the first set.
But a series of thundering spikes sparked Samuel-Genest to a 9-2 run to tie the set at 17-17.
Fort High appeared to steady itself, with two scorching Brooke McGinnis serves and a net violation by Les Laser giving the Muskies a 22-18 lead.
But Samuel-Genest again rode its heavy hitters up front to eventually knot the score at 23-23 before ending the set with two more cannon blasts at the net to win 25-23.
A disheartened Muskie team, which had come so close to a major upset in the first set, then made a series of mistakes to give Les Laser an 8-2 run to begin the second set before co-coach Duane Roen called a time-out.
The Muskies pulled with 10-6, but then watched Samuel-Genest go on a 10-1 run to vault ahead 20-6 en route to a 25-12 victory and the sweep.
The tournament concludes tomorrow with the gold- and bronze-medal finals, as well as the consolation final.
