By Larry Moko
For the second consecutive year Ancaster’s Bishop Tonnos Titans have returned from an OFSAA girls’ volleyball championship with a medal.
Last season, Tonnos captured gold in Barrie and earlier this week the two-time Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic league champion Titans won silver at the AAA level in Markham.
Titans entered the 20-team provincial high school competition this time around as the No. 1 seed.
Their opponent in the championship game was the second-seeded Oakville Trafalgar Red Devils. It was a rematch of the recent Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference final that Tonnos won 3-1.
“Going into the game we knew we were in tough,” Tonnos coach Alvisia Maga said. “They had their full roster back. Whereas when we played them at GHAC they didn’t have a full roster.
“We knew we would have to play a near perfect game and have a little bit of luck on our side.”
The Red Devils, however, won in three straight sets.
Maga was particularly impressed by OT’s Toni Wilson, who also plays for a powerful Phoenix Legacy squad in 17U club volleyball.
“She really commanded the game,” Maga said. “She took control and scored almost at will. She had the majority of their points. We couldn’t stop her.”
Maga said there were a couple of other factors in Tonnos being able to defeat the Red Devils at GHAC.
“That game was in front of our home crowd and OT was missing Wilson plus one of their starting middles that day.”
A tough OFSAA semifinal against Thornlea also drained the Titans. It was a five-setter, with a 15-13 rubber match.
“The Thornlea game took a lot out of us,” the Tonnos coach said. “We played as hard as we could for as long as we could.”
Earlier pool play victories by the Titans were against Belleville’s Bayside Red Devils, the St. Peter Saints of Peterborough, Whitby’s Sinclair Saints and the Ecole Franco Cite Faucons of Ottawa. Tonnos then downed Hamilton’s eighth-seeded Westmount Wildcats in a quarter-final and seventh-seeded Thornlea Cumquats – the host team -- in a semifinal round.
“The people who played well for us all season played well at this tournament,” Maga said.
Tonnos players included Maga’s daughter Avaya, Maryn Petrie, Kennedy Llewellyn, Alyssa Cerovac, Estelle Buist, Veronika Navarette, Christine Di Felice, Mara Craciun, Rachel Campbell, Julia Germanna, Eva Aleksa, Katelyn Masters, Ella Finocchio and Lola Connelly.
“It was a really good year of volleyball,” Maga said.
The only volleyball action remaining for coach Maga and up to four of her players is the annual Hamilton Catholic vs. Hamilton Public high school all-star game. That junior-senior doubleheader is scheduled for April 10 at Mohawk College.
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