HIGH ACHIEVERS: West Ottawa Wild capture gold, bronze medals at Ontario ringette championships

By Martin Cleary

The Ottawa ringette community had plenty of reasons to celebrate at last weekend’s provincial AA championships as three teams won a total of four medals in the five age-group tournaments in Kitchener-Waterloo.

West Ottawa Wild led the attack up ice with one gold and one bronze medals as well as a fourth-place result, while the Gloucester-Cumberland Devils were victorious in that bronze-medal game. The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees also earned a bronze medal.

The provincial medals captured by the Wild also served as their tickets to two major national-level championships in April.

West Ottawa was the girls’ U14 gold medallists at the Ontario championships in Kitchener/Waterloo and received Team Ontario designation for the Eastern Canadian championships in Dieppe, New Brunswick, on April 20-23.

The Wild also emerged from its U16 provincials with the bronze medal and will attend the Canadian ringette championships April 9-15 in Regina.

After finishing its preliminary-round games with a 3-1 record, the Wild U14 team zipped through the sudden-death playoffs, defeating Nepean-Deforest 5-0 in the quarterfinals, Oshawa 5-1 in the semifinals and Kitchener 4-1 in the final. Nepean-Deforest qualified for the playoffs by placing fifth with a 3-2-1 record.

Olivia Binder and Aurélie Lacourcière counted shorthanded goals for the Wild, while Lacourcière also scored at even strength along with Addison Currie.

Binder (six goals, two assists), Lacourcière (four goals, four assists) and Rachel Macdonald (two goals, six assists) provided almost half of the goal production for the Wild and had eight points apiece. Teammates Jane Campanelli (three goals, four assists) and Currie (four goals, two assists) also were significant contributors.

After opening its U16 semifinal with a 3-0 lead in the first period and moving ahead 4-3 in the third, the Wild dropped a 5-4 overtime decision to Ajax Pickering and slipped into the third-place game. But the Wild made amends and defeated Richmond Hill 5-3 for the bronze medal and a trip to the national championship.

Ruby Wojcik led the Wild U16 squad with two goals in the bronze game, while Emily Barteaux, Arianna Hansma and Lauren Staye completed the scoring. Multiple assist games were recorded by Amanda Da Ros (three), Eve Nunnikhoven (two) and Grace Hill (two).

Barteaux was involved in all the offensive celebrations with two goals and three assists as the Wild defeated Gloucester-Cumberland 5-3 in the quarterfinals. She led the Wild in the tournament with 20 points on 12 goals and eight assists.

Wojcik added two goals and one assist to give her a championship total of five goals and nine assists, while Gloucester-Cumberland received two goals from Riley Dallaire.

The Wild attempted to win a third provincial medal, but was stymied by Gloucester-Cumberland. The Devils received an overtime goal from Julia Wilson for a 5-4 victory in the girls’ U19 bronze-medal game. Both teams finished in second place in their respective pools.

The Devils received their other goals from Gracyn Cooper (two), Morgan Forrest and Geneviève Robichaud. Forrest topped the point scoring charts for the Devils with six goals and 13 points, while Maya Howard had 10 goals and four assists and Taylor Forrest notched three goals and 10 assists.

Danika Lindsay had one goal and two assists to pace the Wild and finished the championship with a team-leading 12 points on five goals and seven assists. Kate Babineau (nine goals, two assists) and Mia Fioravanti (five goals, six assists) each recorded 11 points.

In the semifinals, Gloucester-Cumberland fell to Richmond Hill 7-6 and West Ottawa lost 3-1 to Waterloo.

Elizabeth Plamondon scored three goals in a row in a span of two minutes and 24 seconds late in the first period to spark the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees to a 6-3 win over the University of Guelph Gryphons and the 18+ university division bronze medal.

Jessica Glass, Rhian Dentelbeck and Quinn Awrey completed the scoring for the Gee-Gees, while Marieve Vandervoot added two assists.

The Gee-Gees placed second in their preliminary pool at 3-1, but dropped its semifinal 8-3 to Western University. Plamondon scored all three goals for the Gee-Gees and finished the Ontario championship with 16 goals and one assist to lead her team’s offence.

Glass contributed 11 goals and five assists for 16 points and Vandervoort added 15 points off seven goals and eight assists.

Carleton University Ravens finished third at 3-2 in its preliminary pool, but missed the playoffs. Erika Poirier was the Ravens’ points leader at 15 with eight goals and seven assists.

In the 18+ division, Nepean was fourth in its pool at 2-3 and didn’t qualify for the playoffs. But Sarah-Lynne Begin was the top point scorer in the adult division with 11 goals and seven assists for 18 points in only five games.

BÉATRICE-DESLOGES EARNS SILVER AT OFSAA GIRLS’ AA VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

The National Capital Secondary School Athletic Association sent two schools to two of the three OFSAA girls’ volleyball championships and came away with a top finish of second place.

Carrying a six-match win streak into the AA final, undefeated Béatrice-Desloges lost to Thomas A. Blakelock of Oakville 25-18, 26-24, 25-19. In its semifinal, B-D outlasted North Star of Amherstburg 17-25, 25-23, 25-21, 20-25, 15-12.

Franco-Cité lost its final two matches and finished fourth in the AAA championship – 25-15, 25-23, 26-28, 25-15 to Bishop Tonnos of Ancaster in the semifinals and by a 3-1 game score to Sir Frederick Banting of London in the bronze-medal match. Banting defeated Franco-Cité 25-21, 25-22 in preliminary pool play.

On Tuesday night, fourth-seeded Ashbury Colts saw their medal hopes fade with a 66-48 loss to fifth-seeded St. Ignatius of Thunder Bay at the OFSAA boys’ AA basketball championship in Belle River.