Eagles stopped in OFSAA quarter-final

Sports & Recreation — 29 November 2011

The 2011 Dryden High School Eagles Sr. Volleyball team: (from left) Kjell Schmidt, Kevin Wyllie, Jeremy Kennedy, Nick Skillen, Cody Fedorchuk, Tyson Schollie, Coach Jennifer McMaster, Devin Noel, Andrew Pacheco, Kevin Gardam, Brendan Szabo and Josh Dahmer (missing Eric Schmidt). Photo submitted

By Chris Marchand

At the end of a long road to the senior boys provincial ‘AA’ high school volleyball championships, the Dryden High School Eagles threw everything they had at top-ranked Eden, but it wasn’t enough to stop the St. Catharines high school from advancing to a sixth straight championship.

In fact, the last time anyone other than Eden won the ‘AA’ title was the Dryden Eagles squad of 2005. The two teams met in an OFSAA quarterfinals, Nov. 25 in Stratford with the Eagles pushing hard against an 18-25, 21-25, 22-25 loss.

Coach Jennifer McMaster says that final match showed a Dryden team that had grown into a finely-tuned volleyball machine the community should be proud of.

“They fought them (Eden) to the bitter end,” said McMaster. “It really showed just how much they supported one another and how hard they have worked. They never played scared and they swung hard right to last points of the game.”

Eden went on to defeat Loyalist in the semi-finals to face Franco-Cite for a nail biting five-set final that ended in Eden’s favour by a margin of two points.

McMaster adds Eagles volleyballers are to be commended for the level of commitment they put forth in developing one of the top ‘AA’ squads in the province in 2011.

“They really bought into their roles,” said McMaster. “I had kids working at lunch and early mornings in order to improve their areas. They all came a long way and bought into the idea that in order to be a team that wins, you have to be a team that gets along and supports each other on and off the court.”

Seeded eighth, the Eagles began the tournament with round-robin wins versus Lester B. Pearson (25-15, 25-21) and North Hastings (25-19, 25-17). The Eagles stole the first set from third ranked Madill before marking a three set loss (24-26, 25-14, 15-7). A final round robin matchup against St. Andrews would end in a three set win (20-25, 25-21, 15-9).

“We had a really great experience at OFSAA,” said McMaster. “I couldn’t be any prouder of this group of kids.”

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