THUNDER BAY – It was a championship three decades in the making – 32 years to be exact.
The St. Patrick Saints, who entered the senior girls’ volleyball playoffs ranked as the second seed, put three decades of frustration in the past on Thursday night with a convincing straight-set win over the host Westgate Tigers.
It’s a surreal feeling, said the Saints Lily Coulter, who served up 10 straight points in the second set to help power St. Pat’s to the historic win.
“My gosh, it feels incredible. It’s been forever since Pat’s has had a game-winning win. I don’t even know who to describe it,” the 17-year-old Coulter said, the last championship coming 18 years before she was even born.
“Just even thinking about that it’s absolutely insane.”
Her teammate, Shya Boissoneau, agreed.
“It was really one of the most rewarding feelings. I was on the court and I had to double check, am I actually doing this. Is this real,” she said.
The Saints won a back-and-forth opening set 25-19, the set featuring seven lead changes until St. Patrick jumped ahead 13-12 and went on to win 12 of the last 19 points to take a 1-0 lead.
The Tigers scored the first points of the second set, but with Coulter behind the line serving, the Saints piled on point after point after point to go up 11-1.
“Every single time I stepped back on that line I was like please, give me one more, give me one more,” Coulter said.
“I had my fingers crossed behind my back,” Boissoneau added.
They took the second set 25-13, but had a much tougher task in the third, the Tigers set back on their heels, needing to win three straight sets to pull out a championship win.
There were 13 different lead changes in the third. St. Pat’s jumped ahead 8-4, but Westgate rallied and took a 9-8 lead.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, they never led by more than one the rest of the way, the Saints having an answer at every turn.
St. Patrick took the lead for good, going up 20-19, then scored four of the final five points of the match to claim victory, closing it out 25-21 triumph.
Next up is a trip to Fort Frances for the NWOSSAA championships, expected to get under way next weekend. The winner of that will represent Northwestern Ontario at OFSAA.
