St Theresa’s Girls Volleyball 1982
“ONTARIO CATHOLIC
“Winning the Ontario Catholic Girls Championship, as tournament hosts, was a tremendous accomplishment” and remains a highlight of the school’s athletic history.
The St. Theresa’s Girls’ Volleyball team proved that school or town size does not dictate the ability of a team. The Crusaders faced team after team from much larger schools and urban centres throughout their season. They did not let this intimidate them, using their grit, passion, teamwork and skills to dictate their games’ outcomes.
St. Theresa’s hosted the Ontario Catholic Girls’ Tournament for the first time featuring 24 teams from across the province. With perennial rivals, St. Joe’s of North Bay, recent Champions of the York University Invitational, (St T’s placed 6th), and the tournament defending champions, the stage was set for an exciting tournament.
St. Theresa’s completed the double round robin play undefeated. With straight set victories in the quarter finals vs Cardinal Newman, Toronto and in the semi finals vs St. Joe’s, Toronto, the final match of the tournament vs rivals St. Joe’s, North Bay became a reality.
The final was a classic championship match with many sustained rallies as the teams battled back and forth. The Crusaders fell behind early in the first set 1-7. They managed to regain some momentum, but lost the first set 11-15. It was obvious that playing in front of a home crowd was making the team tense and tentative in their play.
After falling behind in the second set, the Crusaders were on the brink of defeat as St. Joe’s led 14-11, 1 point away from the championship. The St. Theresa’s players rallied with great team effort to pull out the victory 16-14! With renewed confidence, they went on to dominate the deciding set 15-5!
“Winning the Ontario Catholic Girls Championship, as tournament hosts, was a tremendous accomplishment. I’d say we’re now playing at a level comparable to any senior girls’ team in the province.” Coach Bruce Finlayson.
Winning their second consecutive GBSSA title over Barrie Central, their next stop was London for the OFSAA championships, where they entered the tournament as the 5th ranked team.
With only 1 loss in round robin play, the Crusaders dominated Vincent Massey, Windsor in the quarter finals. The semi finals was a battle vs Stratford Central pushing the eventual OFSAA champions to the brink as they lost 15-10, 13-15, 8-15.
Their team spirit was resilient as they rebounded to defeat a much taller team from Clarkson Secondary, Toronto 15-13, 15-5 to win the Bronze Medal! “We played our best ball of the year and it was a great team effort.” Coach Bruce Finlayson
Players
Adrianne ((Brennen) Hurst, Kelly (Swales) Graham, Mary-Pat Quilty, Maureen (Jaeger) Quilty, Patti (Cox) Pumputis, Shelley (Moreau) Quesnelle, Susan (Lamers) Featherstone, Ursula Blue Duenkel.
Coach
Bruce Finlayson
