OAKVILLE, Ont. (February 12) - There were plenty of playoff implications for the Sheridan Bruins men's volleyball team (21-13, 10-8 OCAA) in the final match of the regular season - most notably whether they would play the role of host or visitor in their OCAA Championship qualifier this weekend - but thanks to a 3-1 triumph over Redeemer, they earn themselves a home game.
"I think it was a case of an emotional match," assistant coach Mike Russell said. "Everyone was playing for something - whether it was for their team or otherwise. It was just a very emotional match and at times it was great, at other times it wasn't pretty but a win is a win."
Though they trailed in each of the first two sets, the double-blue made plays down the stretch in each of them when they needed to and won both, 25-23 and 26-24.
It was a similar narrative in the third set, but this time the Bruins were unable to match Redeemer and dropped the frame 25-21.
They came back strong in the fourth however, and closed out the match with a 25-18 victory.
Jeremy Fantin had a match-high 18 points (11 kills, one ace, six blocks), while Josh Butler (10 kills, four blocks), Cody Williams (12 kills, one ace), Bruno Leite (three kills, one ace, four blocks), Frank Pento (five kills, one ace, one block) and Jessy Satti (two kills, two aces, one block) rounded out the offensive totals.
The double-blue will host Georgian on February 18 (6pm) and Russell says the game plan is simple.
"We need to minimize our errors," he said. "We can compete with most teams if we minimize our errors. Offensively we have weapons we can throw at any team, defensively we can dig the ball, we just need to minimize those errors and make plays when it's our chance to step up and do it."
Blue notes: The match was part of the Sheridan Teams up with SickKids event that raised more than $5,500 dollars for the children's hospital. There were several volleyball alumni as well as current varsity athletes from other sports in attendance to support the cause and their fellow Bruins. Fantin raised his season total to 214 points, making him just the third freshman in team history to top 200 points in a season. It's the first time the team has posted winning OCAA records in back-to-back seasons since the 1993-94 season when they went 14-0 in OCAA play and won their sixth straight OCAA title.
Source: Sheridan I.T.