By Dan Plouffe
It’s a three-horse race down the stretch of the national capital high school ‘AA’ girls’ volleyball season, and with the type of exceptional results local teams have produced provincially in recent years, those three schools all stand as gold medal threats when the OFSAA championships come to town March 4-6.
“We have such good competition and that’s why we have such good teams every year in NCSSAA,” says De La Salle Cavaliers coach Yan Leroux, whose school will act as tournament hosts for the first time ever. “And for the past six or seven years, coaching in Ottawa has progressed at a different level.”
Take this as proof of local coaches’ dedication: in a world where set scores often disappear as soon as the score chart is flipped, Leroux has such a firm handle on league statistics that he knows that a player of his broke the record for kills in a single season.
That honour goes to Kaly Soro at 552 and counting – a dominant performance by the Cavaliers middle who’s exceeded her own record mark from Grade 10 by almost 100. “I won’t hide it – she’s a big piece of the puzzle on our team,” Leroux shares. “If she’s not there, it’s a different team.”
De La Salle currently sits second in league play with a 7-1 record, their only loss coming against the 9-0 Samuel-Genest Laser, who are led by Grade 10 phenom Sara Piana.
To put the quality of the Laser and Cavaliers squads in perspective, the defending OFSAA ‘AA’-champion Gisèle-Lalonde Titans sit further back at 5-4, but could very easily find their way to the top with standout siblings Sabrina and Rebecca Roy – U18 high-performance Maverick Volleyball Club teammates of Soro’s – in their lineups.
How many of those contenders for a provincial crown will actually get to play at OFSAA is still to be determined. Usually there’d be three – a berth for a league champion, another for the reigning OFSAA champion’s league (in this case, NCSSAA, thanks to the Titans’ 2012 victory), plus a host association berth – but with the whole high school sports scene in chaos across the province due to the public school teachers’ labour conflict, it will be a smaller 20-team event and whether there’s a third spot for a national capital team was unknown as of press time.
Due to the labour disturbance, De La Salle also hasn’t faced many of their top rivals from across Ontario due to tournament cancellations, although with four victories in five tourneys, Leroux has plenty of confidence in his girls’ abilities to match up against the province’s best – he’s more worried about getting out of Ottawa.
“If my team is not there, it would be a big disappointment,” Leroux acknowledges. “The girls all play together. They have a good chemistry. They know each other well, and that’s a big reason why we’re a good team.”
The OFSAA snowboarding festival, which had been slated for Ottawa, has been cancelled due to the labour dispute, along with OFSAA nordic skiing and gymnastics.