THUNDER BAY – Since 2010, only two schools have claimed the senior girls high school volleyball championship.
Heading into Thursday night’s final, the Westgate Tigers owned five of the titles, the St. Ignatius Falcons having won six. Two other seasons were cancelled.
The Tigers hit the court in their home gym as the heavy favourite, having dropped just a single set in running the regular-season table, going 12-0 to earn the No. 1 playoff seed. The Falcons weren’t too bad themselves, going 10-2 in 2023.
Together they delivered one of the most competitive senior girls finals in recent memory, Westgate needing the full five sets to knock off the Falcons (25-20, 25-21, 23-25, 26-28, 15-8) to claim a third straight championship win.
It didn’t exactly play out as Sydney Deans thought it might, but the soon-to-retire senior said she and her teammates were ready to walk away just yet.
“We’ve been working for this for four years now. We walked in, most of us with no experience at all, and we’re ending it like this. It was supposed to go three straight, but it felt nice to drag it out because it’s the last game I’ll play in my high school career,” Deans said.
Teammate Andi Rissanen said the key was not letting themselves get down after taking a two-set let, only to have the Falcons storm back to even the match and send it to a decisive fifth match.
“I was a little bit scared in the last set, but I knew we would pull through because we have so far,” Rissanen said.
“I played last year and we lost our first set really bad and we came back. We always come back for the win. Hopefully we go to NWOSSA and then OFSSA hopefully.
Rissanen said it was the mindset that made the difference down the stretch.
“We were positive and just put up all that we had because we wanted to win it.”
The Falcons, who last won a senior championship in 2019, were never out of any set. They found themselves down nine in the first, but Maia Peterson served up five straight points to close the gap to 21-19 before the Tigers finished it off to go up 1-0.
They were down seven at one point in the second, but battled back to take a 21-20 lead before the Falcons, led by Rissanen’s serve, closed it out with five straight points.
Westgate led most of the third, but too many unforced errors let St. Ignatius hang around, giving them eight of 10 points to go up 24-22, sealing it two serves later when the Tigers serve soared beyond the boundary.
It was the opposite in the fourth, with the Falcons leading or tied most of the way, only to see the Tigers roar back to take a 24-23 lead and a chance to serve for the championship. But the Falcons saved the point, and another with the title on the line, outlasting their opponent 28-26 to force a decisive fifth set.
The Tigers, who only dropped a single set all season, were dominant the rest of the way, jumping out in front 9-2 coasted to a 15-8 lead.
Westgate coach Curtis Michaluk said it was a hard-fought win.
“It’s not easy bouncing back. We’ve been kind of fortunate all year that we’ve seemed to run the table. We had a fantastic season, and to be pushed in our home, like St. Ignatius did, they definitely surprised us and kudos to them – but I was very impressed with our girls in the fifth set and the way they held strong and battled through adversity,” he said.
The Tigers will travel to either Dryden or Fort Frances for the NWOSSA championship next Friday and Saturday.
In senior boys’ basketball, the St. Ignatius Falcons downed the Hammarskjold Vikings 83-35 to win their eighth straight title. Westgate won the junior boys’ crown,
