THUNDER BAY – The Westgate Tigers only lost three sets all season long.
But after two sets in Thursday's senior girl's volleyball final, the No. 1 seed was down 2-0 to the defending champion St. Ignatius Falcons and in real trouble.
That's when their championship mentality kicked in.
The Tigers rallied back from a 20-17 late in the third set, scoring eight of the final nine points to eke out a 25-21 and built on that momentum from there.
They took the fourth set 25-20 and capped off their third title in four seasons with a 15-10 win in the fifth and deciding set in the best-of-three series.
It was an unbelievable finish, said veteran Jenna Sweitzer, who won a senior girl's title a year ago playing forthe Falcons.
“It was scary, but I knew we could do it because we have in the past,” Sweitzer said.
“I feel we got down a little bit, because normally we don't lose the first set.”
Teammate Merritt Morine, the Tigers libero, said they had a talk after the second set and agreed they had to pick up the pace or their 12-0, undefeated season would go for naught.
“I guess we just took that energy and took it,” she said.
“It was hard. We didn't think we were going to lose this, not to be cocky or anything. But we thought that we had it. For us to (start) losinng, it made us come back even stronger.”
Hoisting the championship trophy and advancing to the NWOSSA regional final at home next week is an amazing feeling, Morine added.
“For NWOSSA next week, it's going to be insane. Just bringing back that energy we brought, losing two sets and winning three.”
Down 9-4 in the opening set, the Falcons went on an 11-1 run to take a 15-10 lead, and went on to take it 25-16. Westgate was up 8-7 in the second set, but the Falcons scored seven straight points to lead 13-8, the outscored the Tigers 12-10 the rest of the way to earn 25-18 win.
Westgate coach Curtis Michaluk, who's been behind the bench since 1999, said coming back from two sets down showed a lot of character by his Tigers team.
“We've kind of always had a bit of a slow start, but not quite that slow of a start. We have a confident group of kids and it was a little bit smaller group of kids this year, so our dynamic was a little more cohesive,” Michaluk said.
“But we knew what we had to do and we knew if we could overcome some of those barriers we faced in the first two sets that once we got some momentum things would change, and that's exactly what happened.”
The coach said all he told them was to focus on what was ahead, as opposed to what they'd just done.
“It didn't change if we lost the first two. We still needed to win three.”
A win like that could actually be beneficial as they move on to regionals.
“It definitely doesn't hurt,” Michaluk said .
NWOSSA begins next Friday in Thunder Bay.
