By Dan Plouffe
The hometown teams positioned themselves very well to advance to the playoff round after the first day of the OFSAA ‘AAA’ boys’ volleyball championships, as the West Carleton Wolves and Louis-Riel Rebelles posted a combined 4-1 record.
Hosting their first OFSAA in any sport, West Carleton got things started with a bang, quite literally, on Thursday morning as the Wolves opened with a 25-12, 26-24 win in their home gym over Central Peel.
West Carleton built, then blew, a large lead early in the second set, and found themselves down by two into the 20s before the Wolves responded and finished the match with a giant back-row kill from Fisher Cation.
“What was going through the setter’s head was go to our big guy,” the Wolves’ Lukas Weyand recounted of match point. “We went to Fisher in the back row, that’s our big swinger on this team, so it was great to have him put that one away and seal the game.
“Especially being our first game at OFSAA, and especially being in our home school, winning that game was pretty exciting.”
To the big hitter with the eye-opening smash goes the glory, but the Wolves’ winning point was a great team effort, with a pass right on the money, a perfect, well-disguised set to the back row, and good fakes from the front row to give Cation a block-free path for the kill.
West Carleton has a full starting lineup’s worth of players who have club volleyball experience, with Liam Stewart and brothers Isaac and Ethan Dugal of the Ottawa Fusion, and decorated Ottawa Maverick players Weyand, Cation and Grayson Comeau.
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“We have a lot of strong individual players, but I also think the team comes together really well. We’re all friends, we do stuff together outside of school, so the energy and the teamwork together is really what lifts us up,” Weyand highlighted. “And the school’s coming out to support us, and I think it’s been really beneficial for our team to play as the home school.
“We went on a few bad runs, and the energy from the crowd really picked us back up and got back into the game.”
Wolves coach Mark Elliott soaked in the energy from the lively atmosphere in their home gym and was pleased to see his players persevere for the win despite the second-set hiccups.
“Unfortunately that’s something that this team of ours is a little bit prone to – gaining leads and then just letting them slip a little bit and then pushing at the end for a win,” Elliott notes. “So I guess the good part of it is that we’re used to winning games that way. But as a coach, it’s not as good for my heart to have to go through that.”
After taking the show down the road to All Saints Catholic High School for their second match and topping Toronto’s Earl Haig 25-20, 25-20, the Wolves’ one loss on the day was the one they wanted to win the most.
At last year’s OFSAA, West Carleton was eliminated by host Kingston in the quarterfinal round in the home school’s boisterous gym. The Wolves were keen to turn the tables this year against the top-seeded team in Pool D, but Kingston escaped with a 25-18, 18-25, 15-12 decision.
For all the excitement in that showdown, coach Elliott understands that there are many matches to be played over the course of the Nov. 20-22 event, and his team’s biggest matches lie ahead.
After their three-match first day, the #7-seed Wolves will likely have two more Friday, including a first playoff match (which switches to best-of-five sets) in the quarterfinal round at 7:30 p.m., and hopefully two more on Saturday.
“We’re gonna have to rely a little bit on our depth. You can’t just rely on six or seven players at the OFSAA tournament, because you’ll just wear them out, and then by the time you get to the playoffs, the guys just lack energy and they’re not playing at the same level,” Elliott indicates. “That’s a big part of it. And just reminding the guys to stay hydrated, rest in between sets, eat the proper food – something that’s going to nourish them, but it’s not going to sit heavy.”
Louis-Riel off and jumping with opening OFSAA wins
The Louis-Riel Rebelles spent the minimum number of sets on court as they swept their first two matches of the tournament with a 25-23, 25-15 win over Stratford and a 28-26, 25-20 victory over Markham.
The Rebelles are powered by three returning starters from its 2024 provincial ‘AA’ champion team, plus another three players who led the junior team last year, alongside another trio who returned to the senior team and provide great backup.
“Put that together and it makes for a very, very good team,” says Louis-Riel coach François St-Denis. “And add to that, they’re all super nice guys who get along really, really well.”
The Rebelles are seeded ninth of 20 teams, which may seem a little undervalued on first glance for the squad that won ‘AA’ OFSAA last year, before growing in size up to the ‘AAA’ ranks for the province’s largest schools this season.
Read More: Snack bag magic fuels Rebelles’ crazy comeback for OFSAA volleyball gold
But St-Denis acknowledges that ‘AAA’ does mean a higher level of competition across the board, since schools with larger populations will often have full lineups of players who compete in club volleyball, like the Wolves and Rebelles do.
“The competition is really steep,” signals St-Denis, who’s making his 36th OFSAA volleyball appearance as a coach while savouring the chance to do it in Ottawa. “Usually in pool play, you have one or two very tough matches, and then quarters, semis and finals are all (very evenly-matched). Somebody has to step up. You have to find solutions in a way.
“I’ve tried to convey that to them, that it’s a very tough battle.”
The Rebelles enter OFSAA battle-tested, having faced adversity to secure their OFSAA berth. They lost the top-tier city championship 25-22, 25-23, 26-24 to the Wolves and had to survive a testy 25-23, 25-22, 25-17 play-in match with Franco-Cité.
“That’s the beauty of Ottawa. The level of volleyball is very, very healthy,” St-Denis underlines. “That creates a season that has more meaningful matches. We’ve been in many really, really close battles, and finished on top more often early in the season, less often at the end of the season, but you want to be in those kinds of matches. It adds up.”
Osgoode girls’ basketball starts out strongest at road OFSAAs
There are six other local schools competing at out-of-town OFSAA boys’ volleyball and girls’ basketball championships on the same Thursday to Saturday dates.
At ‘AA’ volleyball in Orillia, Samuel-Genest was swept by top-seeded St. Mary’s (Owen Sound) but rebounded for a three-set win over Twin Lakes (Orillia), while Gisèle-Lalonde lost both their sets in extra points in a three-setter to St. Oscar Romero (Toronto) and was swept by West Hill (Toronto) before upsetting Crestwood (Toronto) in three.
At ‘A’ volleyball in Gravenhurst, Maurice-Lapointe lost both matches to Monseigneur-Bruyère (London) and E.J. Lajeunesse (Windsor) in straight sets.
At ‘AAA’ basketball in Sarnia, South Carleton dropped into the consolation bracket with 47-33 and 47-38 defeats to host St. Patrick’s and A.B. Lucas (London).
At ‘AA’ basketball in Belleville, St. Mark opened with a 44-31 victory over St. Ignatius (Thunder Bay).
At ‘A’ basketball in Brockville, Osgoode Township trounced Red Lake 56-24 after their opponents travelled over 2,000 kilometres from northwestern Ontario.