OFSAA
Volleyball Medals - A Complete Set 11.25.07 OFSAA
Senior Boys AAA Volleyball Championships - Click
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Garner Silver Medals; Regi Resilient at Ontario Volleyball
Posted By Claude Scilley Normally a coach wouldn't care to see a player with anything but a serious look on his face at a crucial moment in a competition. Saturday, however, such a sight didn't bother Mark McKenna at all. "We'd be playing in a tense situation and Marcus Ruffolo would be laughing on the court a little bit," said the Regiopolis-Notre Dame Panthers coach, after his team won the silver medals at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations boys AAA volleyball tournament in Toronto. It wasn't that Ruffolo or any of his teammates were behaving inappropriately. "He'd still be focused on playing well," McKenna said. Such episodes simply demonstrated the calm demeanour the Panthers displayed throughout the tournament. "There was no panicking at any time," McKenna said. "We played like veterans. We're so young, but we were almost unflappable." The Panthers, 3-1 in preliminary play, defeated defending champion Chatham Kent 2-1 in a quarter-final match and Donald A. Wilson of Oshawa 2-1 in the semifinals. In each case, Regi prevailed despite dropping the first set. "We had all kinds of times where we could have folded under adversity," McKenna said. "After getting blown by Donald Wilson in the semifinal we could have folded and said, 'Oh, well, we'll play for bronze.' After blowing that lead against Chatham-Kent we could have folded and said, 'They're such a good team, there's no shame in losing here,' but we didn't. We managed to fight back. "The boys were just so solid." Regi won the first set in the final but ultimately bowed 3-1 to London Oakridge, which returned everyone but one starter from the team that won the silver medal last year. Oakridge was in the same preliminary pool as Regi and had beaten Regi there, but the Panthers managed to take a set and they were buoyed by that going into the gold-medal match. Advertisement "After the semis we were so happy to be in the final," McKenna said. "We'd already exceeded expectations, we knew we could beat them because we beat them in a set earlier. We were ready to play." Regi fell behind in the first set 17-12 when Joe O'Neill went back to serve. "He singlehandedly got us back into that first set," McKenna said. "He ripped off about nine serves in a row" as the Panthers rallied for a 25-21 victory. Then, McKenna said, his team hit a wall. "We were physically exhausted," With an 8 a.m. game Saturday, the Panthers had been up since 6:15 and it was by now well into Saturday night. Oakridge rattled off wins of 25-14, 25-14, 25-17 for its second provincial gold medal in three years. "We just ran out of gas," McKenna said. Bronze medallist at this tournament a year ago and the No. 6 seed this time, Regi began Saturday's playoff round against Chatham-Kent, a team that had won three of the four OFSAA championships since Regi last won it in 2002. "We thought we could match up with them pretty well," said McKenna, who used veteran Scott Wilson to neutralize Chatham-Kent's top left-side hitter. After blowing an 18-13 lead to lose 25-23 in the first set, Regi came back to win 25-19, 15-13. "That was a bit of a heartbreaker there," McKenna said of the blown lead, "but we were mentally tough all weekend. We came out and had a really strong second set." The decisive set was tied 13-13 when Wilson made what McKenna described as a "huge block" on Chatham-Kent's big hitter. "The guy swung as hard as he could," McKenna said. "Scotty stuffed him straight down." The Panthers were still charged from that win when they faced Wilson, which boasted two hitters McKenna said were "unbelievable." "One in particular," McKenna continued, "we never saw a guy like him all year. He was so big and could jump. He just pounded the ball." Suitably humbled, the Panthers lost the first set 25-12. "Twelve is pretty flattering," McKenna said. "We never got hammered like that before. "They kicked us around pretty good." McKenna reminded his players of conversations they'd had during the season about what he called false positives, about what can happen when a team beats another especially badly. "If you're the winner, you can kind of let up and think everything is under control. If you're the loser, your pride is hurt and you fight a little bit better. "Once we got over the shock of those two big hitters, we were fine." Regi went ahead 8-3 in the second set and eventually won it 25-19. It was a similar story in the third set, which the Panthers won 15-13. "We didn't give them any breaks," McKenna said. "Any time they got serve, we'd side out. From the second or third set I'd say they got only two points on their serve. Any time they got a rally or had a big hit, we shook it off, said, 'A point's a point, it's our turn to get the ball back.' " cscilley@thewhig.com
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on Title Run; Volleyball Club Learned Lessons Early in Season EOSSAA Champions Again 11.16.07 Taken from the Kingston Whig Standard Old, New Panthers Join Forces to Win Regional Title Winning combo; Old, new Panthers join forces to win regional title Posted By Doug Graham Updated 3 hours ago The old Cats are the lifeline of what will, for the most part, be a youthful Regiopolis-Notre Dame Panthers team heading to the provincial high school championship for a third straight year. While Joe O'Neil and Derek Wilson are two prime players for the Panthers, they are even more valuable for the tremendous leadership they bring to the court. Both players have been on five straight Kingston Area championship Regi teams and both were seniors when the Panthers won a bronze medal at last year's Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championship. It was perhaps fitting, too, that both the old and new for the Panthers ended up providing the final touches yesterday in a 2-0 match victory over the Kingston Blues that gave Regi the Eastern Ontario Secondary Schools Association senior boys AAA championship. O'Neil made the final tip over the net to seal a second-set 25-21 win. The first set, equally close against a scrappy Blues side, finished 25-22, with Grade 11 player Cam Utley at the net to tip down the final point. Both the Panthers and Blues will go to the provincial championship at Toronto's Humber College next week. Wilson, the captain, said the youth factor shouldn't come into play that much at the provincials. "We only have three guys who have been to OFSAA before, but we've been in that situation before," he said. "We were a young team when I was in Grade 11. We were pretty young last year, too. "It shouldn't mean anything. We just have to go and play like we have been playing. We do that and we should be fine." However, coach Mark McKenna said that the experience that O'Neil and Wilson bring to the court is important for OFSAA. "You need to have experience," said McKenna. "We have two five-year guys who have been to OFSAA twice now. They have lots of big matches at the OFSAA level. It always helps to have that experience." The Grade 11 talent the Panthers will take along is looking pretty good, too. Yesterday, what McKenna refers to as "our law firm" - the Wilson brothers, Derek and younger sibling Scott - were important pieces in the match win over the Blues. Advertisement "Scott had a couple of big blocks and big kills," the coach said. "He made a nice rotation there in the front row for us that sort of turned the tide in that first set. It was every much needed." Both sets featured some riveting rallies - at one point in the second set the Blues and Panthers sent the ball over the net 10 times before a kill by Utley gave Regi the point and a 15-14 lead. The Blues, with Marcus Brown, Chris Robinson, Ryan Gignac and Abraham Anyoti leading the way, tied it one final time before the play at the net by Scott Wilson, Utley and O'Neil, resulted in three straight Regi points that sent them on the way to victory. "Cam Utley has been the young guy all year for us," said Derek Wilson, who said the Panthers don't play like a team that is made up of mostly Grade 11 players. "He's been the one we've gone to when we need a point. Him and Joe are are two big guys and he's been playing well the last few weeks. "We're all leaders out there," Wilson added. "The two fifth years - me and Joe - should be the leaders, but everyone out there has their own responsibilities. They know what to do." The Panthers do, however, feed off the presence of O'Neil and Wilson. "They get lots of points and they can bail us out," Utley said. "It is good having them because they have been there before." Wilson, who plans to play university volleyball next year, said now that the pre-season goal of reaching OFSAA has been attained, the players will come up with a new goal next week at practice prior to departing for Toronto. "One should be to get out of pool play and get into the medal round," he said. McKenna said the fact the team is young won't result in lower expectations. Regi won the OFSAA gold in 2002 and has a third and fourth in the last two appearances. "We expect no less than what we've done in the past," he said. "The goal is always to [win a] medal. Being young, that's not an excuse." Regi Sweeps Match; Senior Panthers Win Volleyball Title Posted By Claude Scilley It probably wouldn't quite qualify as a scare, but the Kingston Blues made the Regiopolis-Notre Dame Panthers take notice last night. "They were here to play," said Joe O'Neill, Gananoque's contribution to the left side of the Regi attack. "They got lots of points during the set. We kind of came out flat a little bit. It was, 'Let's go boys.' " The Regi boys got going. The defending provincial bronze medallist, Regi came back from a 14-10 deficit in the opening set to sweep KC 3-0 in the Kingston Area Secondary Schools Athletic Association boys volleyball championship match at Bartlett Gym. The Panthers ultimately prevailed 25-21, 25-12, 25-14 as they completed an undefeated - 12-0 - campaign. "KC was playing well," O'Neill said. "They have a pretty good team and they didn't make a whole lot of errors. "Our energy was only half there. That's the way you stay in the game, celebrating every point, lots of cheering," but early on, the Panthers didn't have a lot to congratulate themselves about. "We were a little bit flat, a little bit sluggish," said Panthers coach Mark McKenna. "It took us a while to get our energy and get our legs going and once we did, we were fine, once we got through that first set. We had a couple of big rallies that we ended up winning. We developed some energy and just went from there." The Panthers settled down to claim their third senior county championship in a row. Advertisement "We limited our errors, passed fairly well, played defence well," O'Neill said. "Our serving was decent." The Blues, who finished fourth in KASSAA - 6-3, before upsetting Holy Cross in the semifinals - had a close match with Regi during the regular year. "We still won 3-0 but every set was close," O'Neill said. "It was in their gym, which is small, and we never play well in that gym." For O'Neill and teammate Derek Wilson, it was the fifth KASSAA volleyball championship, counting two they won as juniors. "I wasn't as nervous for this one," O'Neill said. "Normally in this gym, it's a big gym, lots of people, you get nervous off the start but not so much this time." Both Regi and KC will play in the Eastern Ontario Secondary Schools Association triple-A championship tournament Thursday at Regi, where they'll be joined in the round-robin affair by Thousand Islands of Brockville and Arnprior. By winning a medal at OFSAA last year, Regi gained for EOSSA an extra berth at this year's Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations tournament, meaning the top two teams from Thursday's event will advance. Regi's senior victory made it a clean sweep of boys volleyball championships for the school, after the junior Panthers disposed of the Ernestown Eagles 3-0. Regi won 25-21, 25-15, 25-23 in a match that took less than an hour to complete. Playoff Victory Over Loyalist 11.06.07 Whoever said "Good things come to those who wait" didn't have sporting events in mind. The Senior Panthers struggled to find energy and consistency early in the match and looked very sluggish in a quarter-final win over Loyalist (25-23, 25-8, 25-22) . The Left side attack proved to be the difference as Joe O'Neill, Pat Zalewski and Neven Lochhead combined for 19 kills. All healthy bodies saw action and will be more prepared for semi-final action on Thursday. Panthers Go Across the Causeway 10.30.07 The Senior Boys completed their KASSA season with an unblemished 9 wins and 0 losses. Mike "killer" Robinson led the way for the Panthers in the straight set (25-11, 25-13, 25-14)victory over Lasalle registering 1 ace, 1 kill and 6 digs. Next up for the Panthers, Quarter Finals on Tuesday. Lethargic at Loyalist 10.26.07 In a lazy collective effort, the RND Seniors were able to triumph over the host Lancers, 3 games to 1 (25-9, 25-23, 20-25, 25-15). Joe O'Neill had his best performance from the serivce line this year as he ripped seven aces for the victors. Unfortunately, most of the match saw the Panthers listless and disinterested. A better effort will be needed with the playoffs fast approaching! Win Over Frontenac 10.20.07
Seven is the lucky number as RND improves to 7-0 on the regular season(5-22,
25-14, 25-7). Neven Lochhead made his Senior debut after spending a month
on the shelf and registered 4 kills. Conor O'Donnell made high percentage
choices running the offence and recorded 22 assists and 8 service points.Napanee Travels For Naught 10.11.07 RND Highlights: RND saw their KASSAA mark remain perfect with another straight set victory (25-14, 25-16, 25-20) . A solid team effort by the Panthers saw 12 of the 13 players register at least one kill or a stuff block. Mike Robinson was "money" in the back row passing and helping to organize the Panther defence. The boys are travelling to Toronto this weekend to compete in the 24 team Storm/Jaguar Classic. Best of luck Panthers!!! Crosstown Win at KC 10.09.07 A sloppy effort from the Senior Panthers saw them squeak out a straight set victory (25-23, 27-25, 25-17). Numerous passing errors and mental mistakes allowed KCVI to stay close in the first two sets of the match. Kyle Riel stepped up in the third set to stabilize the passing and Derek Wilson was able to dominate at the net finishing with 8 kills. More consistent play will be needed in the future. Home Court Conquering the Crusaders 10.08.07 The Panthers continued their unbeaten ways to improve to 4-0 on the KASSAA season. Scott Wilson and Cam Utley provided a solid wall at the net to repel many Crusader attacks and combine for 8 stuff blocks. Timely serving from Josef Freundorfer and an overall increased team intensity, late in the third set allowed the Panthers to keep their record perfect as they rallied from 15-21 to secure the victory. Enjoy the Thanksgiving break. Panthers Bounce the Blazers 10.02.07 RND improved to three wins and no losses on the season with a straight set victory (25-19, 25-12, 25-14) over the Blazers. Mike Robinson was consistent in the backrow to solidify the passing game and Joe O'Neill led the attack with 8 kills. Holy Cross will venture to RND on Thursday in a battle of undefeated teams. Gametime is 1:00 PM. Go REGI! Panthers Overcome Green Panthers 09.28.07 Senior Boys earned their second, straight set victory (25-11, 25-10, 25-17) over the Northern Panthers. Kyle Riel registered 8 kills to pace a balanced RND attack while Josef Freundorfer accounted for 12 service points to lead all RND servers. Next up is Bayridge on Tuesday. Western Trip to Open Versus the Eagles 09.25.07 The Senior Boys overcame a slow start and some last minute line-up changes to open the KASSAA season with a straight set victory (26-24, 25-11, 25-19) . Scott Wilson led the way offensively with 9 kills and Colin Hogan provided energy off the bench with 4 digs and 3 kills. Queen's Univ. Tournament Report 09.24.07 RND competed over the weekend against some of the top teams in the province in the 21st annual Queen's University Tournament. RND continued their fine early season play by capturing 2nd place in their pool (1-1 vs. St. Patrick's, 2-0 vs KCVI and 0-2 vs Glebe Collegiate). In Quarter Final action the boys took advantage of Derek Wilson's serve to easily dispatch of local rival Ernestown 2-0. In the Semi-finals South Grenville provided the opposition in another straight set, 2-0 victory. The tournament finale concluded with the team playing their finest volleyball of the season against an experienced and AAAA OFSAA favorite Glebe Collegiate. Learning from mistakes in the round robin the team made some strategic changes but dropped a closely contested match 22-25, 23-25. Congratulations to Joe O'Neill who was selected a tournament All-Star. Queen's Univ. Tournament Information 09.20.07 Click Here to see the latest schedule for this weekends tournament hosted by Queen's University. It's a great opportunity to see some quality high school volleyball. Garnet and Gold Classic - Tournament Information 09.14.07 Volleyball fans can Click Here to see a schedule of games for the annual Senior Boys Volleyball tournament at RND on Saturday, Sept 15. Digging Into The New Season 09.11.07 The senior boys volleyball team will be starting off the new season with the RND Invitational on Saturday 15,2007 in the CND and JUC gyms at Regi. The tournament will be kicking off the boys journey on the road to repeating at OFSAA medalists. Good luck Panthers!
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