Robert Moore, Mine Centre strike gold

The Robert Moore boys’ team and Mine Centre girls’ squad won gold in their respective divisions at the 17th-annual Region 1 Invitational Bantam Volleyball Championships last Saturday at Fort High.
Robert Moore nipped Mine Centre in the best-of-three boys’ final, winning the first game 27-25, losing the second one 27-25, before clinching the match with a 16-14 victory in the deciding game.
Riverview (Rainy River) took the bronze medal after sweeping the Lakewood Broncos (Kenora) 25-16 and 25-20.
Meanwhile, the Mine Centre girls would not be denied the gold medal, sweeping Riverview by scores of 25-11 and 25-9 in their championship final.
The Dryden Whiskey Jacks earned the bronze with a pair of 25-15 wins over Lakewood.
The most valuable players of the tournament were Mavrick Blackhawk (Whitefish Bay) and Felicia Fisher (Dryden), with Robert Moore and the Mine Centre Thunderbirds named the most sportsmanlike teams.
In boys’ pool play, Robert Moore finished with a perfect 7-0 record, followed by Mine Centre at 6-1.
Riverview was next, with the Lakewood Broncos, St. Thomas Aquinas, the St. Francis Sentinels, Whitefish Bay Winterhawks, and the Crossroads Tornadoes rounding out the field.
On the girls’ side, the Mine Centre Thunderbirds finished with a perfect 7-0 record, followed by Riverview and the Dryden Whiskey Jacks.
Rounding out the teams were the Whitefish Bay Winterhawks, Lakewood Broncos, Crossroads Tornadoes, St. Francis Sentinels, and St. Patrick’s (Atikokan).
The top four teams in each division advanced to the playoffs, with first playing second for the gold medal and third against fourth for the bronze.
“These will be the best 14-year-olds in Northwestern Ontario,” long-time organizer Brian Love noted before the tournament. “These will be the kids who make up the high school teams in Rainy River, Dryden, Kenora, and Fort Frances.”
“It will be a great weekend because during the year, there have been quite a few tournaments that have been close,” Love said.