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4 5 |Thursday, November 17, 2016 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com Kevin Nagel Oakville Beaver sports editor knagel@burlingtonpost.com Sports "Connected to your Community " TA. Blakelockfips fall to Rebels in Halton boys' Tierl Jr. volleyball final By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff In left photo Oakville Trafalgar's Jack Maitland (2) spikes the ball past Bishop Reding Royals' Ibrahim Va kil, left, and Jacques Tournadre during Halton Jr. Tier 2. Above, the T. A. Blakelock Tigers' Ryan Harris spikes the ball as Rebels defenders John Dunning, left, and Davis Young attempt to block during the Tier 1junior final. | photos by Graham Paine - Burlington Post Future bright for Halton Tier 2 Jr. finalist OT By Steve Leblanc Metroland West Media Group W ith all but one starter eligible to return, Oakville Trafalgar High School' s junior boys' volleyball team will have some un finished business to attend to next fall. The Devils had prevailed in five of six tiebreakers this season -- including three straight -- but came up agonizingly short in their biggest third-set challenge on Monday Down 5-1 to the Bishop Reding Roy als, OT battled back to tie things up four times -- the latest at a nail-biting 13-13 -- before an out-of-bounds serve and a hit into the net finally quashed their Hal ton Tier 2 championship hopes at Sheri dan College. Making the narrow loss even tougher to swallow was the fact the Devils beat their Milton rivals in both regular-season meetings. "Heartbreaking springs to mind," said head coach Wendy Malloch, whose squad went 6 -2 this year and beat King' s Chris K b j g J u j l d J u J tian Collegiate 2 -0 (2 5 -1 0 , 2 5 -2 1 ) in the semifinals. "This is a gutsy team ... We just came up short." W ith its season on the line, OT rallied from a 2 5 -2 0 opening-game loss with a 9-1 run and an eventual 2 5 -1 2 rout to force a winner-take-all third game. W ith setter Luc Barnett-Wright finding his groove as the match progressed, Mat thew Tint, Jack Maitland and Kyle Jickling combined for 10 kills in Game 2 and had two apiece in the tiebreaker. W hile clearly the more explosive of the two teams, the Devils ran into net viola tion trouble at times against the Royals. Bishop Reding had turned things around since a third-place performance at the Dr. Frank Hayden Secondary School tournament in late October and was more formidable than its 3-5 season record would indicate. "That (tournam ent) was our turn ing point. The guys really came together there," said Bishop Reding coach Kevin Da Silva. OT scored the initial set' s first four points before giving up the next four and eventually being outdistanced. The T.A. Blakelock Tigers came a long way this sea son, but the task of taking down the powerhouse Georgetown Rebels proved to a be a little too much. The undefeated Rebels scored a 2 5 -1 6 , 2 5 -1 4 victory over the Tigers to claim their first Halton junior boys volleyball title since 2007. Ju st taking a set off the Rebels was cause for celebra tion this season. Georgetown lost just three sets in 12 matches heading into Monday's championship game. It might have been hard for Blakelock to even envi sion itself in the final in September. The Tigers began the season with back-to-back losses before winning nine of its final 10 matches, with its only loss in that stretch coming against Georgetown. "We improved all season long," said Blakelock coach Juris Simsons, "especially our passing. That' s what we worked on the m ost." "We were better playing as a team ," Blakelock mid dle Nick Gumienik said of the strategy against the Rebels. "We were talking a lot more (on the cou rt)." That improvement showed in the Tigers' results. Blakelock rallied for an important victory over the Hayden Huskies in the final week of the regular sea son, winning 2 3 -2 5 , 2 5 -1 0 , 15-13. Both teams fin ished the season 7-3 but that head-to-head win gave the Tigers third-place, allowing them to avoid George town in the semifinals. A week later, the Tigers defeated the Garth Webb Chargers 2 5 -2 1 , 2 3 -2 5 , 15-10 in the semifinals. Webb had swept Blakelock in the season opener, not allow ing the Tigers more than 18 points in either set. Georgetown would prove to be a little bit more difficult, though. The Rebels built a 17-8 lead in the opening set before Blakelock was finally able to string some points together. Gumienik came up with some big kills, Ryne Thacker was able to slow the Rebel at- see Three on p. 47 N o m in a t e A m a z in g . Help us celebrate the junior citizens who make our communities better. 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