OVA News

The Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs took the first step towards an Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations boys volleyball medal Wednesday, knocking off visiting Governor Simcoe 3-0 (25-14, 27-25, 25-22) in the Zone 4 final.
The three-time defending zone champions and two-time Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association champions are hoping to better their fifth-place showing at OFSAA last year.
“We should be ranked fifth going in and, if we play well, we should medal,” Bulldogs coach Steve Bonazza said.
Churchill is led by Wilson Hadfield, Tre Cunningham, Jacob Glantz and Patrick Strzalkowski, all club players under Bonazza with the Mountain Athletic Club.

Read more from Bernie Pulchalski, St.Catherines Standard

The Cobourg District Collegiate Institute East Comets will have the opportunity to defend their Central Ontario Secondary School Athletics (COSSA) junior boys’ AA volleyball championship on home court.
Yesterday the 2007 COSSA champion Comets swept their way to four straight victories, including the final against the cross-town rival Cobourg District Collegiate Institute West Vikings, at the Kawartha Secondary School Athletic Association tournament, which was also held at CDCI East.
Both the Comets and Vikings, the top two teams from Kawartha, advance to the COSSA tournament next Wednesday at the East school. They will be joined by two representatives from the Bay of Quinte region.
Dan Knight, head coach of the CDCI East Comets, said there is a lot of pride in having both Cobourg AA teams vying for the COSSA title.
“You’ve got the two top teams coming out of the (Kawartha) southwest division and now they’re representing our district at the Central Ontario championship,” Knight said. “I think that says a lot about the calibre of volleyball that is being played locally.”

Get the full story by Jeff Gard, Northumberland Today

St. Thomas Aquinas’ senior boys volleyball team is on a mission.
With St. Thomas Aquinas and the Kenora Catholic District School Board hosting the 2008 ‘A’ Senior Boys Volleyball OFSAA Championship, the boys have a berth into the provincial tournament.
The provincial tournament will bring high-calibre volleyball to Kenora as 20 teams and over 300 athletes from across Ontario will participate in the championship. The championship will be running in the St. Thomas Aquinas gym, Nov. 22-24, 2008.
Get the full story by Roy Thomson, Miner and News

The focus this season for the Paris District High School Panthers senior boys volleyball team has always been the same: make it back to the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championships.
However, to get there, the Panthers still have two more items to take care of. The first one begins this week.
“It’s big for us,” Paris’s Brandon Ford said of qualifying and playing for a Brant County championship.
They advanced to the final after defeating the Assumption College Lions 25-13, 25-21 and 25-12 last Wednesday to take their best-of- three semifinal series 2-0.
“(North Park) snuck it out last year so we want some revenge.”
Get the full story, Brian Smiley of The Brantford Expositor

The Canadian beach duo of Ahren Cadieux and Rich Van Huizen posted their first major upset of the US$175,000 Bahrain Open Wednesday when they defeated the defending champions of the event Nummerdor-Schuil of the Netherlands.
Playing partners for the first-time they were seeded 16th in the 32-team Main Draw. Cadieux and VanHuizen posted a 21-18 and 30-28 victory in 57 minutes over the top-seeded Nummerdor-Schuil to snap the Dutch’s 22-match winning streak on both domestic and international tours since the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
“It was all about Rich today,” said Cadiuex about his 205 cm partner…Rich’s presence at the net can really make the difference, especially against the Dutch. They rank among the best teams in the world, so today’s win is really special.”
Their first lost of the event came at the hands of Germans Dollinger-Windscheif 0-2 (18-21, 19-21) but they got another go round today facing Fijalek-Prudel from Poland only to lose 0-2 (14-21, 16-21).
Prudel and Fijalek’s best previous SWATCH FIVB World Tour finish was a 13th two weeks ago in Dubai. Earlier this season at a FIVB event in the Czech Republic, Prudel and Fijalek advanced to the Prague Main Draw as the 43rd-seeded qualifying team. The next day, Prudel and the 22-year old Fijalek upset 2008 SWATCH tour champions Harley Marques and Pedro Salgado of Brazil in the first-round.
Cadieux and Van Huizen finished fifth.
Other Canadians, Ray Sewell and Martin Reader, finished 13th. They along with fellow Canadians, Podstawka - Hall will move on to Sanya, China to compete in the qualifier, November 10-16.

Canadian women’s team of Annie Martin and Marie-Andre Lessard coming off their fifth place finish in Dubai will compete in the main draw event in the tour stops in Phuket, Thailland, Nov. 4-9 and in Sanya, China, Nov. 11-16.

Cambridge, Ontario’s Stephanie Neville, a sophomore at Florida State and outside hitter was selected as the Atlantic Coast Conference Volleyball Player of the Week after leading the Seminoles to consecutive 3-0 wins on the road at Virginia and Virginia Tech.
Friday, Neville put down 12 kills in Florida State’s win over ACC leader Virginia Tech. She hit at a .375 clip and had only three errors in 24 attempts. She was only one shy of her career high of 13 kills.
Get more details theacc.com

Cobourg District Collegiate Institute East’s junior boys won the Centre Hastings Secondary School Centurion Invitational Volleyball Tournament in Madoc on Friday.
Dominant throughout the day, the East Comets swept every match en route to the tournament victory.
In round-robin play, CDCI East defeated Clarington Central Secondary School, of Bowmanville, (25-17, 25-17), the host Centre Hastings (25-12, 27-25), St. Theresa High School, of Belleville, (25-15, 25-12), North Addington High School, of Cloyne, (25-17, 25-12), and Regiopolis Notre Dame Secondary School, of Kingston, (25-15, 25- 13).
All of the set victories from the Centre Hastings tournament brings the East’s record this season to an impressive record of 58 wins and no losses.
Get the full story from Northumberland Today

Canadian Interuniversity Sport proudly announced the student-athletes honoured as Desjardins Top Eight Academic All-Canadians for the 2007-08 season. Three of these eight distinguished student-athletes are volleyball players: Niklas Rademacher, Jennifer Thomson and Ben Schellenberg.
Every year, a growing number of CIS student-athletes are recognized as Academic All-Canadians, having maintained a grade point average (GPA) of 80 percent or better over the academic year while competing for one of their university’s varsity teams. In 2007-08, over 2,000 student-athletes reached the prestigious status.
Read more

The Canadore Panthers men’s and women’s volleyball teams will open their Ontario Colleges Athletic Association season at home Friday and Saturday.
The Panthers women’s team opens Friday when they host the Lambton Lions at 8 p. m. at the Education Centre gymnasium.
The Nipissing Lakers men’s and women’s teams also open at home this weekend in the Surtees Centre gymnasium.
More details, North Bay Nugget

Every dog has his day. So, too, does a lion.
In shockingly uncharacteristic fashion, the heavily-favored Mississauga Secondary School Lions were nowhere to be found when it came time to play the final Saturday evening at the Authentic Volleyball Classic featuring 24 of the best high school teams from the GTA.
“It’s always great coming back to reality,,” said Lions head coach Brent Austin after the Mississauga school was upset by Upper Canada College in the quarter-finals at St. Joseph Secondary.
Get the full story from Gary McCarthy, The Mississauga News