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C M C M 1 ^ O CN Kevin Nagel, Oakville Beaver Sports Editor, knagel@burlingtonpost.com O CN Sports "Connected to your Community" O Tigers have Georgetown on their mind By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff Ridge's G rade 9 gplfer fifth a t provincial m eet By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff O Q W ith the Halton volleyball playoffs approaching, the T.A. Blakelock Tigers find themselves in a familiar po sition -- chasing Georgetown. Last season Georgetown swept Blakelock's juniors in the Halton final. Now the two schools appear to be on a collision course in the senior ranks. W ith one week and two games left in the season, both have already clinched their divisions, the Tigers doing so with a 2 5 -1 7 , 2 5 -2 0 victory over Garth Webb on Tuesday W ith three returning starters -- Gavin McCready, Brendan Arndt and libero Dominik Gombas -- Blake lock had a solid foundation to build on. Blakelock then added Nicholas Gumienik and Noah Romero-Marshall, two players with provincial team experience, and setter Logan Snair from the ju nior squad. As an added bonus Gage McCurdy, who won a Hal ton Tier 2 title and went to OFSAA last year with Burl ington's M.M. Robinson, transferred to Blakelock. All of that has taken the Tigers from a team that went 4 -6 last season to one that is 7-1 so far this season. That one loss? Georgetown. But it was by no means easy It took three sets, 2 5 -1 7 , 2 1 -2 5 , 15-8, to tame the Tigers. TAB coach Yuris Simsons says his team' s attack has been a strength. That's no surprise since half his starting lineup (Gumienik, Romera-Marshall and Mc Curdy) also plays club volleyball together. There is still work to do, though, if they are to top Georgetown. "Our hitting has been excellent," he said, "but we still have to work on our passing." Gumienik said though the team is dangerous offen sively, that all begins in the back row "We really try to focus on defence first," he said. "The defence starts the offence. If you have no defence, you've got no offence." And while the prospect of finally trying to unseat Georgetown could heighten the nerves, Gumienik doesn't see it that way "We always have really good games against them ," he said. "Mostly it's just fun playing against them ." Noah Romero-Marshall of the T.A. Blakelock Tigers spikes the ball over a Garth Webb blocker in a Halton Secondary School Athletic Association senior boys' volleyball game. Blakelock won 25-17, 25-20 to clinch first place in its division. | photo by Nikki Wesley - Oakville Beaver W hen Iroquois Ridge High School golf coach Jim Fish er was trying to gauge the ability of his incoming play ers at the team's first meeting, he began with a simple question -- who can break 100? Alexis McMurray was the only girl to raise her hand. McMurray could do a little more than that. In the team's tryout round, she broke 9 0 and Fisher still got a sense that she wasn't happy with that. Then in her first tournament round for the Trailblazers, she shot a 77. Fisher didn't get his first chance to follow the Grade 9 golfer until she ended up in a playoff in the Halton final with three-time champion Kristen Giles. "Her mental ability is her strength," Fisher said. "She's very resilient. Her opponent makes an amaz ing bunker shot to give her the advantage and (Alexis) makes her (birdie) putt to w in." Ju st as Fisher may not have known what he had in his new recruit, McMurray' s first provincial high school tournament was a bit of an unknown. "I didn't know what to expect," she said. "The Hal ton final was tough so I thought (OFSAA) would be even tougher. If you had told me top -10 before the tournament, I would have been pretty amazed." McMurray did better than that. She became the first golfer from the region to finish in the top five at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations tournament in more than a decade. In cold, windy conditions, McMurray's 81 left her tied for fourth. She shot an 82 on Day 2 to finish tied for fifth. "I played it safe, which you have to in windy condi tions," McMurray said. "I played well, but I didn't feel like (any part of m y game) was amazing." Among those she was tied with after the first round was Strathroy's Taylor Kehoe, who fired a 7 4 -- one of only two golfers to break 8 0 on the second day -- to claim the OFSAA title by two strokes. "It was a good experience," McMurray said, "just seeing how it played out against older girls." King's Christian Collegiate's Ellis Harvie finished tied for 21st after shooting back-to-back rounds of 88. * First-step quickness Reaction skills k L e a s e B u s te rs .c o m is th e la rg e st v e h ic le lease m a rk e tp la c e in C an a da. W e 'll u n lo c k y o u fro m y o u r v e h ic le lease c o m m itm e n t... sa ve tim e , e a rly te rm in a tio n fee s a nd p e n a ltie s. Puck control Power & acceleration k Explosiveness ^ v,, * C all n o w fo r a fre e c o n s u lta tio n 1 -8 8 8 -3 5 7 -2 6 7 8 o r v is it us a t w w w .L e a s e B u s te rs .c o m Puckwork implemented throughout the program An excellent studentto-instructor ratio PRICE $ 2 8 8 +tax $ 2 8 8 +tax $ 2 8 8 +tax ·k N O V - JA N TIM E S LO TS : AGE & LEVELS DAYS TIMES 8 -1 2 HL 8 -1 2 Rep Fri Fri 5:30pm 6:30pm 9:00am 10-12 H L & R ep S a t Ik EASE USTERS .COM 13-15 R ep 10-13 R ep Sat Sun 10:00am $ 2 8 8 + ta x 9:30am $ 2 8 8 +tax WWW.WAVEHOCKEY.CA Register: 905-336-3434 x10 or program s@wavehockey.net