THUNDER BAY – Throughout the season the Churchill Trojans were the class of the city’s senior boys’ high school volleyball field, going unbeaten and only dropping a single set.
With the championship trophy in sight, the Trojans weren’t about to squander a chance to cement their dominance.
Churchill claimed the SSSAA title on their home court Monday night with a commanding three-set victory (25-21, 25-20, 25-15) over the second-seeded Westgate Tigers for their fourth crown in the past five years.
“It feels really good to get the gold in my last year of high school,” said Grade 12 Aaron Johnston. “I’m really happy we won.”
The Trojans came into the match knowing a win would close out the city championship, but a loss would result in a Tuesday winner-take-all rematch against Westgate.
Churchill head coach Scott Masters said he stressed the importance of not giving the Tigers an opening.
“When you get to the end guys always worry about winning instead of worrying about playing volleyball,” he said. “It was really important for us to finish it (Monday) and it worked out well for us and the kids really came through.”
With their backs against the wall, the Tigers came out as the stronger side and edged out to an early 9-6 first set lead. The Trojans promptly responded with five straight points to take the lead, which turned the remainder of the set into a back and forth affair featuring kills from Westgate hitter Max Miller and Churchill hitter Tyler Kakegamick on each side of the net.
At 21-21, the Trojans broke through with the final four points of the set to draw pivotal first blood.
Things went from bad to worse for the Tigers on the first point of the second set, when Miller suffered an ankle injury that sidelined him for the rest of the match after landing on a teammate’s foot.
“That was really unfortunate,” Masters said. “At first it took the wind out of both teams’ sails because we were running our defence around him. We had to readjust. He’s a nice player for Westgate and carried that team all year.”
Churchill jumped out to an early 15-10 lead in the second. After losing their key offensive weapon, Westgate was able to keep the second set close but was not able to sustain a run to draw even.
Strong defensive play from the Trojans finally began to frustrate Westgate in the third set when desperation began setting in. To avoid hitting blocks and trying to find any open space on the floor, the Tigers started spraying errors around the court.
“We’ve been setting up for Westgate so much. They do quick middles a lot so we got our middles in practice blocking quicks all the time and when they can block it’s a game changer,” Johnston said.
The Trojans closed out the final on their first match point when a Johnston kill found the floor.
