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8 Independent & Free Press, Tuesday,March 1, 2011 SPORTS & LEISURE Another Halton title for Rebel volleyball By RYAN GLASSMAN Special to the IFP This time last year, the Loyola Hawks senior girls' volleyball team was celebrating a Halton AAA championship. Fast forward to today and the squad is now wondering what it will take to beat the Georgetown Rebels. Competing in the Halton AAAA final this season due to the recent growth of the school's population, Loyola lost in straight sets (25-22, 25-14) to its rivals Thursday at Sheridan College. The defeat came exactly two weeks after the Hawks dropped their regular season finale to the Rebels, also in straight sets. With the victory, Georgetown improved its record to 13-0 on the campaign and team confidence is at an all-time high with the GHAC (Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference) tournament beginning on Tuesday. GDHS's senior girls have now won four of the last five Halton titles. "It's fantastic," Rebels' head coach Kyle Stewart said. "We wanted to go into OFSAA with an undefeated record so it means a lot. The Halton title is always an important thing for Georgetown High and we have done quite well in the Halton finals so it's a big deal." After Georgetown took the first set 25-22, both teams were tied at nine apiece in the second before the Rebels went on a 16-5 run to close out the game. Stewart said improving served helped his club close out the victory. "In both games, we started out a little nervous and our serving wasn't where it normally is," he said. "Certainly in the second game it made all the difference in the world that in the second half, the girls settled down and our serving got back to where it normally is, we picked our spots well and threw them off their offensive game plan." Despite the loss, Loyola (85) also advanced to the fourteam GHAC tournament and will head out on the road for a meeting with St. Thomas More Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. Georgetown will host Bishop Tonnes at 3 p.m. on the same day with the final occurring on Wednesday in Hamilton. But in order for the Rebels to emerge victorious, Stewart hopes the girls realize they will have to get off to a better start on Tuesday than they did against the Hawks. "This wasn't our greatest outing," he said. "Today our offence wasn't where it has been. The serving was at times sporadic. I think we have to settle down next week and get the nerves under control early because that was a major factor early in this game." HOCKEY: Christ the King's senior boys needed overtime to defeat Holy Trinity in their twogame Halton Tier I semifinal series on Monday, with Trevor Fillier netting the clincher. The Jaguars won the opener Friday 4-1 before Holy Trinity took game two 2-1 Monday to force the tiebreaker. CtK will host the Halton championship game Thursday at 1:45 p.m. against Iroquois Ridge or Nelson. CtK's girls pulled off a mild upset in the Halton Tier I quarterfinals with a 3-1 victory over Corpus Christi Thursday. Kendra Vander Eyken, Hayley Cook and Hilary Cosmo had the goals and netminder TeriLynn Digout was outstanding for the fifth-seeded Jaguars, who'll visit the second-place Nelson Lords today (Tuesday). Vicky Jacobs of Loyola tries to blast through the blocking of Georgetown Rebels Courtney Keast (#1) and Chelsea Briscoe (#3) during senior AAAA Halton volleyball final at Sheridan College. The undefeated Rebels swept the best-of-3 final and will host Hamilton's Bishop Tonnos in the GHAC AAAA semifinals today (Tuesday) at 3:30 p.m. Photo by Michael Ivanin Raiders rally to extend series By EAMONN MAHER Staff Writer Down 3-0 in the best-of-7 series and trailing 2-0 in the second period of game four Saturday night, the Georgetown Raiders looked like they were playing their final game of the 2010-11 season. The visiting Oakville Blades seemed to be just a step ahead throughout the Ontario Junior Hockey League North/West Conference quarterfinal series and were imposing their size advantage over the Raiders again, as they've done in knocking out Georgetown from the playoffs the past three years. But after captain Scott Wilson was sent sprawling to the ice in a knee-to-knee collision with Oakville's Stefan Thompson, Raider defender Matt Chiarantano instigated a scrap with Thompson and will miss game five tonight (Tuesday) at Oakville's Sixteen Mile Sports Complex at 8:30 p.m. The Raiders responded to Chiarantano's actions by tying the contest on goals by Travis Fulton and Evan Rodrigues heading into the final period. "It just got to a point where they were pushing us around a little bit too much and (Chiarantano) just DUSTON stepped up," HEBEBRAND said 20-yearGame winner old forward Duston Hebebrand, who supplied the thirdperiod game winner on a partial breakaway. "That's (Oakville's) game plan, to get us off our game plan by pushing us around. We've got a smaller team but we're faster so we have to play to our strength. We have nothing left to lose now, just go out and leave it all on the ice." In 2000, the first-place Raiders came back from a 3-0 series deficit to beat the eighth-seeded Blades in seven games, although the circumstances are much different this year. Oakville hasn't lost on home ice since late November and Saturday's loss was just the Blades' sixth defeat to Georgetown in the past 21 post-season matches between them. On Friday night, the Raiders received goals from Hebebrand and Fulton less than a minute apart in the second period to take a shortlived 2-0 lead, as the Blades struck back for four goals in 11 minutes. The third period was scoreless, despite Georgetown holding a 14-5 advantage in shots. If game six is needed, it will be played Wednesday at the Alcott Arena at 7:30 p.m. 0.9% finance for up p to 60 months & Lease ase for 4 48 8m months on at 0.9% both o.a.c. 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