By Larry Moko
It’s been volleyball, more volleyball and a lot of travel recently for several members of the Bishop Tonnos Titans.
After winning the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic senior girls’ high school volleyball championship last Thursday over the St. Thomas More Knights, a group of Tonnos players headed off for President’s Day recruiting tournaments in the United States.
Avaya Maga, Maryn Petrie, and Alyssa Cerovac flew to Orlando, Fla., for a recent tournament, and two other Titans – Estelle Buist and Mara Craciun – went to Detroit for a three-day tournament in Michigan.
All returned in time to help Tonnos defeat the visiting Corpus Christi Longhorns of Burlington 3-2 in a Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference semifinal Wednesday. In the final set, the Titans prevailed, 15-8.
“We just got back yesterday,” Petrie said. “When we came on the court for practice we were exhausted. It’s been non-stop volleyball.”
The Hurricanes captured a bronze medal in the top tier – the only team to defeat the American squad that took top honours.
“It was a big weekend for volleyball in the States,” Tonnos coach Alvisia Maga said. “They would have played all day Friday, all day Saturday and all-day Sunday.”
Back on home soil, Tonnos landed a berth to the March 4-6 OFSAA tournament in Markham by edging the Halton Catholic league champions. Tonnos is the defending AAA provincial high school gold medallist in the sport.
Tonnos will play host to the Oakville Trafalgar Red Devils on Monday, Feb. 26 for the GHAC title. However, both teams automatically advance to OFSAA.
Corpus Christi took the first set, 25-18, and the third, 25-22, while Tonnos came out on top in the second and fourth sets (25-17 and 25-15, respectively).
Too many unforced errors in the first and third sets proved to be a problem for the Titans. They committed a total of 25 in those two games.
“That was a close one,” coach Maga said of the match. “If you minimize mistakes, volleyball is an easier game. When we started to hone in on that we were able to get into an offensive flow, which we saw in the fifth set. We were finally playing what I would call BT volleyball.”
Coach Maga praised the Tonnos seniors and captains for “stepping up” when it counted.
“It was a show of resilience today,” the Titans coach said. “We wanted it a little more. Our motto coming into this was ‘we’re not done yet’. And we cheered that at the end.
“We still have a little more to prove. We didn’t want our season to be over yet.”
Commenting on her own play, Petrie said: “I started off a bit wonky and was nervous. I really wanted to win this game. I think we all did. I expressed that nervousness to my teammates and they supported me so I was able to perform.”
The Tonnos coach said the presence of outstanding middles Dara Obeid and Avangelina Cvetan of the Longhorns made it a nail-biter throughout.
“We knew we were in tough when we found out we were playing these guys,” coach Maga said.
In the other GHAC semifinal, the Knights dropped a 3-1 decision to the Red Devils in Oakville. Scores were 22-25, 25-14, 28-26, 25-19.
Photos by Richard Andoga
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