Swept away
Three Oaks boys, Kensington girls win senior AAA titles in three sets
Try as they might neither Colonel Gray Colonels volleyball teams could hold back the waves that were the Three Oaks Axemen and the Kensington Torchettes at the Prince Edward Island School Athletic Association senior AAA gold medal matches Friday in Charlottetown.
Kensington sped past the Colonels 3-0 (25-13, 25-14, 25-13) to earn the girls’ gold, while Three Oaks blew by Colonel Gray 3-0 (25-18, 25-13, 25-6) for the boys’ top spot.
In the girls’ game, Casandra MacLeod and senior Hillary Bernard were a ferocious blocking wall against the smaller Colonels and routinely frustrated the host squad, despite the best efforts of Gray senior Abby Hyndman, who had several kills and was named to the tournament all-star team.
MacLeod, also named to the all-star squad, had two blocks and a kill in the second set
that gave Kensington a 19-13 edge and turned the frame the Torchettes’ way.
Maddy Rogers served out the set.
In the third stanza, MacLeod blasted five kills past Gray blockers and had the final tip to win the set and the game.
But the Grade 11 student didn’t take anything for granted in the match.
“Never. We just kept playing, just kept having fun and (didn’t) get too cocky that we had it,” MacLeod said after
winning her first AAA title. “I’m just proud of all my teammates. It was a lot of time and a lot of effort all season. It’s nice it came out with something good.”
For Jenny White, Gray head coach, it came down her team’s inability to execute consistently.
“It was a pretty competitive game. We had a tough time getting our passes going,” said White. “The girls showed a lot of heart. They stayed in it the whole time.”
Boys
On the boys’ side, TOSH’s Ethan Boyd assaulted the Gray defence with kill after kill, especially in the third set where he wracked up six winners and two blocks as the Axemen’s 13-0 run closed out the set and the match.
Boyd, a 2017 Summer Canada Games indoor and beach volleyball team member, hurt his ankle at the Games and wasn’t a go for the season until just after school began.
Good thing it healed, too, as he was part of a senior trio (Logan Cameron, Kamden Arsenault) who now haven’t lost a game in three years together and have three straight gold medals.
“I’m pretty pumped about that. Definitely it’s the most special (of the three titles). My best memory will probably be Kamden getting all those serves. Unbelievable, so unbelievable.”
But the win wasn’t easy. Colonel Gray jumped out to 5-1 and 8-4 leads in the first and second sets, respectively, before TOSH gathered itself and roared back.
“We just knew we deserved to get those points. They were ours for the taking,” Boyd said.
Mistakes cost Gray points as much as TOSH took those points. And that, said Gray head coach Max Arsenault, hurts the most for the senior-laden team. Six of the 12 graduate this year.
“I told them (afterwards) to take this game with a grain of salt. (It’s) disappointing we didn’t play up to our level. TOSH played great, but we didn’t play up to our potential,” said Arsenault. “It’s something even coaches sometimes can’t understand. We didn’t take advantage of our chances. We got down a little a too quick and struggled to let stuff go. There’s always a learning curve.”
The Charlottetown Rural Raiders won the women’s bronze medal with a 3-1 (258, 22-25, 25-19 25-23) win over the Bluefield Bobcats, then the Bluefield men got revenge with a 3-0 (25-12, 25-23, 25-22) victory over Rural in the men’s bronze game.