Staff
The Muskie senior boys’ volleyball team captured the silver medal at a tournament in Dryden over the weekend.
Fresh off a thrilling semi-final victory over St. Pats (Thunder Bay), the Muskies fell 25-13 and 25-23 to Atikokan in Saturday’s final.
“Coming right off the court from the semi and walking into the final was tough,” co-coach Jason Cain admitted in an e-mailed response to the Times.
“We didn’t even take a warm-up as we needed the five minutes given to us just to relax and come down from the semi-final win,” he noted.
Cain said the team started very slow in losing the first set.
“Atikokan started off strong again [in the second set] but we slowly chipped at them,” he remarked.
In the end, though, Atikokan prevailed by two points to sweep the best-of-three match.
“Coach Bryk has worked hard with his boys from Atikokan,” Cain said.
“They are a tough team to beat.”
In fact, Cain is predicting Atikokan will advance to the OFSAA ‘A’ championships later this fall.
The Muskies opened round-robin play Friday by sweeping Sioux Lookout 25-20 and 25-23.
Then after rolling over La Verendrye (Thunder Bay) 25-16 and 25-17, Fort High fell to St. Pats by scores of 25-22, 20-25, and 11-15.
They closed out round-robin play with a 25-17/25-23 loss to Atikokan.
Fort High downed Ignace 25-17/25-15 in its first playoff match.
Then after dropping the opening set 25-14 in their quarter-final against the Kenora Broncos, the Muskies rallied to take the next two by scores of 25-16 and 16-14.
That set up a semi-final showdown with St. Pats.
Once again, the black-and-gold lost the opening set (25-21) but bounced back with 25-17 and 16-14 wins to advance to the final.
“Our semi-final game was the best volleyball I’ve ever seen from these boys,” said Cain.
“Losing the first set didn’t sway the focus of the group,” he noted.
“They were anxious to take the win, and did it doing what we do best: serving tough, running a fast offence, and hitting hard.
“The energy in that gym was indescribable,” Cain added. “I’ve never experienced anything like it.”
Cain conceded the season hasn’t started out the best for the team.
“We have a group of guys who are all individually talented, a lot of potential, but have struggled to put it all together,” he remarked.
“Well, that is beginning to change,” Cain said. “In [the] playoffs, the guys began to feed off one another.
“They started working hard not just to score a point but to not let the team down, as well.
“Their energy grew and grew throughout the day,” he noted. “They began to play the fast tempo, hard-hitting game that we knew they had in them.
“[That] group effort had us defeat our league rivals, take down the top team in Thunder Bay [the team we may just have to beat in order to go to OFSAA], and eventually put [us] in the final.
“We come out of this weekend more confident, recharged, and focused for NorWOSSA playoffs,” Cain stressed.
The squad went into the tournament on the heels of a 3-1 loss to the host Kenora Broncos last Wednesday, dropping the first two sets 25-22 and 25-16.
The Muskies battled back with a 28-26 win in the third set but then fell 25-12 in the fourth-and-deciding one.
The Muskies, who sit in second place in the NorWOSSA standings at 2-3, resume league play tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. against the visiting Dryden Eagles.
Then they will host the Broncos next Wednesday (Oct. 25) before closing out the regular-season Oct. 31 in Dryden against the Eagles.
The NorWOSSA playoffs are scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 7 in Kenora.
