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46 - The Oakville Beaver, Friday February 23, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com Mixed bag of rep players form potent Hawks squad Loyola takes undefeated mark into today's Halton AAA girls' volleyball final S canning the Loyola Hawks' roster, the senior girls' volleyball team might look like a Frankenstein creation. While every member of the starting lineup is an experienced rep player, they are spread across the GTA, each playing for a different team. Bring them all together, however, and you have a monster on the high school courts. Loyola did not drop a single set all year on its way to a perfect 8-0 season. Wednesday afternoon, they kept that streak intact, booking a return trip to today's Halton AAA final at Sheridan College with a 25-9, 25-20 semifinal victory over the Iroquois Ridge Trailblazers. And while the Loyola players may go their separate ways on the weekends, during the week they are united for a single goal -- winning the Halton championship that narrowly eluded them last season. "It was hard on everyone, especially our (graduating) seniors," Leah Franco said of last year's loss to Acton, in which the Hawks took the opening set only to lose the next two. "We worked so hard to get there and then we just fell apart. I can't wait (for today) and hopefully we'll do better." "The girls are going back with a different attitude," added Loyola coach Toni Babic. "I think we can do it. Our advantage is we've been there and the girls have that experience behind them." They also have plenty of high-level rep experience, led by Rachel Vukson, who won Ontario and Eastern Canadian U16 championships with the Durham Attack last season. In addition, Franco (Burlington Blaze), Christina Shaw (Mountain Athletic Club), Lindsay Wilk (Oakville Thunder) and Chanelle Preradovich (Scarborough Vipers) all bring club experience to the team while power Alex Pecar plays rep ball of another sort -- basketball. "They all bring different styles of play but they know each other well on the court so they adjust well," Babic said. If Loyola's success this season isn't enough to strike fear into the hearts of its opponents, the fact that all except Wilk will return next season certainly should. As if their collection of young talent -- enough to make any coach However, some strong spikes from jealous -- wasn't enough, the Hawks Franco and Monica Maher helped got another boost when Preradovich Loyola prevail. moved to Oakville from Burlington last "We play in a tough pool with OT and year. Aquinas. They're both big hitting Preradovich took over the teams," said Ridge coach setting duties from Vukson, "Offensively, Bryan Fautley. "We've got allowing Vukson to move to we've got really Jenny, who's a phenomenal the right side and adding good hitters. hitter, but we're not as another strong attacker, Defences are not strong offensively as we are making Loyola that much defensively. That's what just stopping one harder to block. we've relied on." "Offensively, we've got person. We've Fautley was proud of how really good hitters," the got three we can his team battled in the secGrade 11 setter Preradovich go to." ond set but said the `Blazers said. "Defences are not just knew they had their work stopping one person. We've Loyola Hawks' cut out for them. got three we can go to." "The girls went in knowChanelle Preradovich The addition of ing this was the team to beat Preradovich not only strengthened in Halton, maybe in Ontario." Loyola but also weakened today's oppoOther final matchups nent for the Halton championship, the Assumption Crusaders (approximate 5 The Hawks/Crusaders matchup will p.m. start at Sheridan College). be the fourth game on today's Halton "It should be fun," Preradovich said volleyball finals slate at Sheridan. of playing her former team, "but it will The Georgetown Rebels and Notre be intense." Dame Fighting Irish will begin the Loyola showed how dominant it can afternoon with the regional junior final, be in Wednesday's opening set. It held a scheduled for 12:30 p.m. That contest slim 7-6 lead after getting out to a slow will be followed by the senior AAAA title start, but then reeled off eight straight game between the Oakville Trafalgar points with Shaw serving and took 18 of Red Devils and Georgetown, starting at the last 21 points. approximately 2 p.m. Led by Jenny Slater and Ali Okihiro, The St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders will Iroquois Ridge played good defence in then meet the Lester B. Pearson the second game, rallying from a 10-5 Patriots in the senior AA final, which deficit at one point to take a 15-13 lead. will likely begin around 3:30 p.m. Top racquetballers in town Fifteen of the top 16 female racquetballers in the world are in Oakville this weekend to compete in a tournament at Premier Fitness. World No. 1 Rhonda Rajsich, of Phoenix, and No. 2 Cheryl Guidinas, of Chicago, headline the list of competitors. The top Canadian in the event is former world champion and three-time U.S. Open champion Christie Van Hees, a Calgary resident currently ranked sixth on the professional tour. Play begins today at noon, with the top seeds in action at 5 p.m. The quarter-finals will be contested tomorrow at 11 a.m. and 12:15 p.m., with the semis slated for 4 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. The championship game will be played Sunday at noon. Premier Fitness is located at 474 Iroquois Shore. SPORTSBRIEFS Dalhousie, serving as the team's back-up setter. Miller, again an OT grad, has been Queen's starting setter this season and was named the Ontario Conference's most valuable player. Blades, Red Wings open series tonight The Oakville Blades and Hamilton Red Wings will open their best-of-seven Provincial Junior A Hockey League West Conference semifinal series tonight with a 7:30 start at Dominion Twin Rinks. The series is a rematch of last year's West Conference final, which the Blades swept 4-0. Oakville went 4-1-1 against the Red Wings this season. Game 2 of the series is scheduled for Monday in Hamilton, with the third game back in Oakville on Tuesday. Locals preparing for CIS volleyball Four local residents will compete in next month's Canadian Interuniversity Sport men's volleyball championships at McMaster University in Hamilton. University of Alberta student Brock Pehar, Dalhousie University teammates Dan Murray and Chris Dunlop, and Queen's University player Devon Miller will all participate in the national tournament, scheduled for March 2-4. Pehar, a St. Thomas Aquinas grad, is the starting setter for the top-ranked Alberta squad, and was recently named as a first-team Western Conference all-star. Murray, an alumnus of Oakville Trafalgar, was selected as a first-team all-star in the Atlantic Conference and finished third in the conference in kills. Dunlop, also from OT, is in his third season with Silver for Skura novice Wings The Skura Corporation Wings novice house league hockey team earned silver at a select tournament in Port Perry recently, winning its first two games before falling in the final. Oakville defeated the Pickering Panthers 10-2 and the Oshawa Solar Bears 5-2, then was downed 5-1 by the Ancaster Avalanche. Members of the Wings are Josh Widman, Jack Mc Mann, Patrick Mc Guire, Trevor Downey, Kyle Kolwich, Nick Skura, Kyle Morrell, Sam Brubacher, Travis Harrigan, Kyle Hatherall, James Zuliani, Cameron Bushen, Clarke Marner, Adam Wolf and Adrian Mendez. Mike Wolf, Terry Hatherall and John Harrigan coach the team.