Joey Payeur
A year ago may have been the low point of Sydney White’s volleyball career.
This past Friday unquestionably was the highest.
The normally low-key White couldn’t contain her emotions knowing she and the rest of the Muskie senior girls’ volleyball team had just slain NorWOSSA’s most fearsome dragon as they ended the Dryden Eagles’ 15-year title reign with a 3-1 win (22-25, 25-20, 25-16, and 25-15) in the league final Friday at Fort High.
“It’s unreal,” effused White, who was part of last year’s squad that held a 2-0 lead over Dryden in the final but watched it slip away in a five-set defeat.
“The teamwork was the key this year,” added the veteran power, who had 16 kills in this year’s final, including the winning point when she pulverized Tanisha Boshkaykin’s perfect set into the back corner of the court.
“Everyone got to see what it was like to be on a real team and see how fun it can be,” White added.
The Muskies now get to stay on familiar turf for the next step in their journey as they host the best-of-three NWOSSAA championship this weekend against the Westgate Tigers of Thunder Bay.
Game 1 is set for Friday at 2 p.m., with Game 2 going Saturday at 10 a.m.
Game 3 (if necessary) is slated for Saturday at 2 p.m.
The winner advances to the OFSAA girls’ ‘AA’ provincial championship March 6-8 in Belleville.
Veteran left-side hitter Chelsea Kabatay was especially grateful for the opportunity at a second chance after she and Boshkaykin were unable to finish the season with the team last year.
“It’s so surreal, so amazing,” beamed Kabatay, who had 11 kills of her own Friday and whose dynamite one-armed save of a deep-court set by Dryden started the game-ending play finished off by White.
“It’s the best feeling in the world [for the Muskies] to take home the gold for the first time in 16 years.”
The team’s rookies were no less joyful at being part of toppling the Eagles’ dynasty.
“I’m really proud to be on this team and glad we could help the veterans to win it for them,” grinned front-row force Carmen Godin, whose four kills in the second set Friday from the middle blocker spot helped ignite the Muskies’ rally.
Fellow first-year player and right-side hitter Abby Sanders, who served the match’s final three points, said the message co-coaches Amy Wilson-Hands, Shana Windigo, and Terry McMahon have been trying to impart finally resonated after Dryden took the opening set.
“The last couple of weeks, we’ve had trouble communicating on the court and the coaches have been telling to pick it up and we finally got it,” she noted.
“It doesn’t even feel like the game has started yet.”
Wilson-Hands, whose entire team either were just one or two years old the last time the Muskie senior girls hoisted the NorWOSSA trophy, had trouble finding the words to convey what it meant to finally bring the black-and-gold back to the top of the hill.
“I’m extremely proud of them. They worked so hard all year,” lauded Wilson-Hands, part of what was an entirely new coaching staff this season after Shelly Kabatay and Rick Wiedenhoeft shared the responsibility last year.
“Since the beginning of November, their sights were set on taking home NorWOSSA,” she remarked.
“Every player on that team contributed to us winning today in some way. They deserve it.”
Wilson-Hands figured nerves played a part in losing the first set, as well as the team’s communication issues and not being aggressive enough attacking the net.
“In the huddle before the second set, I asked them if they wanted this, how bad they wanted it, and what they were going to do about it,” she recalled.
“This team is definitely a bunch of competitors and know when to start turning it on, and to be honest, no one can touch them at the net when they are swinging and on their blocks.”
Despite a 7-1 regular-season record, two out-of-town tournament titles, and two more silver medals at other tourneys, Wilson-Hands conceded the road to NorWOSSA gold was not without its potholes.
“During the course of the season, we came across a lot of bumps as a team and we worked through them as a team,” she admitted.
“I knew if they weren’t addressed, it would filter onto the court and affect their game,” added Wilson-Hands, who figuratively took her Muskie cap off to the vanquished Eagles.
“I have mad respect for Dryden Eagles’ volleyball, the staff, and the coaching program,” she said.
“They have worked hard to develop players and to take a 15-year run at holding the title, I don’t know if that will ever happen again,” Wilson-Hands noted.
“I appreciated the intensity they brought to the final today.”
It’s only been two years since the Muskies last made it to OFSAA–beating Westgate here for the NWOSSAA crown in 2015 after finishing second in NorWOSSA to Dryden, which had an automatic berth to the all-Ontarios as host team.
Now the Tigers come calling again, with Fort High having split two best-of-three championship matchups with them in tournament action this season.
The Muskies also swept a pair of two-set encounters against Westgate at two other tourneys.
“I definitely think we’re in the right mindset right now, but I don’t want the girls to be too confident going into the game,” Wilson-Hands warned.
“I know [Westgate] is working extremely hard in their gym and their coach is going to have a plan,” she stressed.
“The Muskies are going to have to work hard in practice this week and we will do what we have to to win NWOSSAA.”
White, meanwhile, said the Muskies’ insistence on never surrendering bodes well for this weekend–and beyond.
“We don’t give up, we don’t get down on ourselves,” she noted. “We just tell ourselves we’ll get the next one.
“If we play against Westgate the way we played today, we’ve got a pretty good chance,” White added.
“When we have to travel, we’re tired from being on the bus so long,” she remarked.
“Now, we can just wake up, come here, and play our game.”
