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The O akville Beaver, Friday F e b ru a ry 17, 2 0 0 6 - 3 5 No size, no matter: Aquinas impressive at volleyball provincials Young team. Small team. Small school. All were perfectly good reasons why the St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders should not have been where they were. The Raiders ignored them all. Aquinas reached the quarter-finals of the All-Ontario Catholic Volleyball Tournament on Saturday before falling to North Bay's St. Joe's Scollard Hall 25-21, 25-16 at Holy Trinity in Oakville. "You only get better by playing good teams," said Raiders coach Peter Szpakowski, "and these girls just keep sur prising me." There was no shortage of good teams and little separated those at the top. Stratford's St. Mike's defeated Burlington's Notre Dame 26-24, 25-23 for the championship while Windsor's Holy Name topped St. Joe's 25-23, 26-24 for the bronze medal. Just behind them was quarter-finalist Aquinas, the only AA school to reach the final six. The Raiders were most likely the only one sporting a starting lineup half-comprised of junior-age players, a factor that also gives them a dis tinct height disadvantage. But Aquinas was the one with the advan tage because of its strong defensive play on the opening day of the tournament. It was one of only three teams in the 36-team tour nament to win its pool by going a perfect 100 through its five round-robin match es. The fifth-seeded Raiders allowed only one team to score more than 20 points. That earned the Raiders a place in the A division playoffs where they posted a 4-6 record in pool play Saturday. That landed them in a three-way tie for third with only three playoff berths available. Aquinas earned that final playoff spot by keeping its games close. T\vo of its losses were by scores of 25-24 (round-robin games were capped at 25 points) and 25-23, which paid off when the tie was broken by point differential. Aquinas was the only one of the three dead locked teams to come out on the plus side of the ledger. Although St. Joe's -ended their run, Loyola also qualified for the tourna Szpakowski said the Raiders will benefit from the high-calibre games as they head ment's A playoffs by posting an 8-2 record in into the Halton playoffs, with their eye on pool play Friday. Saturday, missing several taking a run at qualifying for the Ontario players who were at a rep tournament, the Federation of School Athletic Associations Hawks would have needed five wins to qual ify for the playoffs but went 2-8. That AA championship tournament. With a Grade 9 starter, Tessa Medlock, included two 25-24 losses, one of them to and two Grade 10 starters, Jaime Neefs tournament finalist Notre Dame, and a pair and Victoria Miliucci, the* Raiders of 25-22 defeats. Holy Trinity went 5-5 in pool play Friday certainly have promise for the future, but they feel as though to qualify for the B playoffs. Much like the they are ready to compete with Titans' hard-luck results in league play, they ` came close but in the end were not reward the best now. "They're pretty pumped ed. They scored 20 or more points in three going into the playoffs that they of their losses, including a 25-24, 25-20 can do it," Szpakowski said. "This was a good sweep to pool winner St. Joseph's of quality tournament and they're going to be Windsor. Holy Trinity was eliminated in B ready (for playoffs) because they've seen as playoff pool play after going 3-5. Szpakowski, who organized the tourna good as teams as they're going to see. Those teams that we played in the tournament are ment along with Loyola's Toni Babic and Notre Dame's Andrea Walsh, said the event going to be "OFSAA teams." was a success with competitive play on the Aquinas also showed that it has some depth with Andrea Adamic stepping into a court as well as a well-received banquet and starting role for the tournament and prov mass. -- H erb Garbutt, s t a f f ing she belongs there. Mid-season turnaround for midget AAA Rangers After a slow start to their hockey season, the Oakville midget AAA Rangers have tu rned th eir game around and appear poised for a lengthy playoff run. Oakville, the SCTA champions a year ago, went 6-1-1 in a recent one-month stretch and also earned bronze at the inau gural Peterborough Ice Fest tournam ent. The Rangers "actually opened th at to u rnam ent with a loss and two ties, but edged defending OMHA m s champion Clarington 3-2 to earn a berth in the bronzemedal game. Oakville then downed Brampton 3-2, over coming an early 2-0 deficit with goals by -Tyson Theaker, Brett Runcimen and Brett Chandler. Also scoring goals for the Rangers dur ing the tournam ent were Joel Brooks, Ali Robitaille and Dan Hunt. Kris McCoubrey and Kyle Morrison shared the goaltending chores. In league play, Oakville has been excel lent lately in tight games. During the Rangers' 6-1-1 run, all of those contests were decided by two goals or less, with four of Oakville's wins coming by a single goal. The Rangers defeated Burlington 2-1, Halton 6-4, Grey-Bruce 4-2, Welland 6-5, Halton 2-1 and Niagara Falls 3-2. Oakville also played a pair of games against Guelph, tying 2-2 and dropping a 4-3 decision. Oakville goalscorers in those games included Kyle Badham, Josh Ruys, Mickey Macdonald, Paul Yager, Alex Corrance, Kellan Lain, Chandler, Brooks, Runcimen, Hunt and Theaker. p p P .............. . . . . . . 3 is scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday) at Dominion Twin Rinks, a 7:30 p.m. start. The Rangers have received valuable con tributions from all members of their team lately, including goaltenders Jake Smith and Hunter Swain as well as defencemen Austin Kosack, Jackson H ulbert, Jacob Prinsen, Justin Martin, Greg Campbell and Daniel Hussey. M Increased offensive produc tion from forwards Kristyn Capizzano, Cole Morrison, Sean Perichak, Brandon Clark, Kevin Guzzo, Connor Stack, Kamil Tkaczuk, Danny Beaver and Daniel keyed Nicolucci has Oakville's recent hot stretch. p a*r anc* Lee added a single as Oakville began the first-to-six-points series Sunday with a 3-1. victory, Cheeseman had two points, giving him 11 in his past four games. Walker an OUA volleyball all-star Oakville's Danielle Walker has been named to the Ontario University Athletics West Conference women's volleyball allstar team. Walker, a 20-year-old left side on the Laurier Golden Hawks, led the OUA in kills with 238 and scored a team-high 271 points. She also led Laurier in digs (266) and service aces (18). It is the second time the former St. Thomas Aquinas student has made the OUA all-star team. Walker, a third-year kinesiology/ phys ed student, helped Laurier post a 13-6 record, good for third in the OUA West Conference. Minor midget AAA A 3-2 victory over St. Catharines Monday at Glen Abbey Recreation Centre lifted the Oakville, minor midget AAA Rangers into a tie with the Halton Hurricanes atop the SCTA standings. Jonathan Brand, Patrick Marsh and Michael Paonessa scored for the Rangers, who improved th eir record to 21-5-6. Strong.goaltendingJby David Clement pre served the victory, while Paonessa (two), Steven Guzzo, Brendan Muise and Brand earned assists. Oakville holds a game in hand on Halton. The teams are scheduled to meet in the regular season finale Feb. 28. * In their previous games, the Rangers edged Grey-Bruce 1-0, downed Hamilton 3-1 and tied Welland 2-2. Scoring for Oakville were Guzzo (twoj, Marsh (two), Jake Barton and Brand. Minor bantam AA Atom AAA The Oakville atom AAA Rangers contin ue to roll, winning their first two SCTA playoff games and having lost only once in their past 15 contests. Oakville, which closed out the regular season with a 7-1-5 run, downed the Burlington Eagles 2-1 and 3-1 in the first two games of their first-round series. Game Needing three wins to advance to the second round O f the OMHA playdowns, the Oakville minor bantam AA Rangers were up to the task. Oakville defeated Ancaster and Flamborough by 5-3 scores, also earning a 5-2 victory & over Stoney Creek. J BM FA Elliot Cheeseman (two), · MSKO* POOTfcAa HSXOOATTCN! H alton Football A lliance Aaron Heffelfinger, Phil * Hampton and B rett Lee NON CONTACT (FLAG) SOLD OUT! scored against Ancaster, with For waiting list information please log on to our w eb site a t www.burlingtonminorfootball.com Ryan DiBattista, Jeff Pinto, Will Zinkiewich, John REGISTRATION Nardozzi and Cheeseman Dates: February 18, 25 and March 4/06 from 9:00 to 1:00 pm supplying the offence against Location: BMFA Equipment Ctr. (Behind Nelson H.S. off New St.) *New Peewee Sum m er League Stoney Creek. Mike Scott, *Rep S tam peder Pali P ro g ra m Tyke. A tom an d Peewee W eight R estricted Ryan McGillivray, Nick *H ouse League T ackle P ro g ram Kashty, Pinto and Cheeseman W eight R estricted tallied in the clash with * B antam and Collegiate R egistration Flamborough. Marcus Nepiak . February 18, 25 and March 4/06 from 9:00 to 2:00 pm (One-hour extension for Bantam/Coliegiate) and Christopher Miniaci each Burlington Minor Football Association/Halton Football Alliance is earned wins in goal. proud to supply our membership with complete yearly-inspected tackle The Rangers carried that football equipment excluding footwear. m om entum into their sec A ll BMFA Players keep their Team Jerseys! ond-round series with Bring a Photocopy o f the Players Birth Certificate ifnew to BMFA Chatham. Nardozzi scored a PRESENTEDBY The Oakville Beaver NAME OF YOUR SCHOOL, GROUP OR ORGANIZATION: COLLECTOR__________________ Send or drop off your collected coupons to: THE OAKVILLE BEAVER, 467 SPEERS RD. OAKVILLE ON L6K3S4 No copies or reproductions accepted