Court rulers
CEC girls win South Shore tournament for the 17th time in 18 years
The CEC Cougars went undefeated to win a tournament crown in Bridgewater.
There’s something that seems to agree with the Cobequid Cougars and the Bridgewater Invitational high school girls volleyball tournament.
For the 17th time in the tournament’s 18-year history, the Cougars captured gold after a straight sets win over the Parkview Panthers (25-15, 25-18) in the final.
The Cougars won both of their matches on Day 1 with straightset wins over Parkview #2 and Horton to finish first in their pool. On Day 2, they defeated CEC #2 (25-14, 25-17) in a quarter-final and Northumberland (25-15, 25-4) in a semifinal to advance to the championship match against Parkview.
Leading the Cougars attack was Nicole Rector with 22 kills and only two hitting errors for a 62.5 per cent kill percentage. Maddie MacGregor, the Cougars other middle hitter, had 18 kills and only two hitting errors for a 66.7 kill percentage, while Laura Hughes MacKay had nine kills out of 12 attempts.
Robbi Gordon led the Cougars in serving with 12 aces, 28 successful serves, and only two serving errors, while MacGregor had nine aces, 35 successful serves and only two serving errors.
Hannah Crouse, Hughes McKay and Ellen Lewis each had eight perfect passes. Crouse had a 2.40 serve-receive average while Hughes had a 2.50 average and Lewis 2.28. Crouse also led the team on defence with 16 spike digs and two tip digs, while MacGregor had 11 blocks.
Abby Bernard had a strong allaround performance with seven
aces, 12 perfect passes, 15 kills, and nine digs, while Rebecca Worden and Mariah Putnam, two of the top three setters in the province, ran a well-balanced and consistent attack for the Cougars.
CEC #2 finished fourth in its pool, splitting sets with both Northumberland (25-21, 20-25) and West Kings (25-11, 22-25) and losing two straight to Parkview. After losing to CEC #1 in the quarterfinal the Cougars went on to win their last two matches with straight-set wins over both Parkview #2 and Horton.
Maddie Ball and Emma Fortunato led the way on offence with 20 kills each for CEC #2, while Macailin Tanner had six kills out of 13 attempts.
Leading the team in serving was Ball with 11 aces, 34 successful serves and a 3.08 serving average. MacKenzie Matheson had nine aces and a 3.12 serving average, while Emma Fortunato had 28 successful serves and Sydney Davidson had 26.
Caitlin Whooten led the team in serve-receive with 15 perfect passes and 1.91 serve-receive average while Maddie Ball had 11
perfect passes and a 2.06 average. Ball also led the team on defence with 21 spike digs and four tip digs, followed by Whooten with 13 and two and Emma Shive with 11 and two. Fortunato was the leading blocker with 19, followed by Emma Shive with 11.
In only her second week of setting, Sarah Garrett showed exceptional improvement as the Team 2 setter.
This weekend, both teams will be competing in the Cougar Classic Invitational at the CEC, Truro junior and vocational school gymnasiums.