By Bruce Burton
The Haldimand Press
HALDIMAND—Anyone who is a fan of “The Big Bang Theory” is probably familiar with Sheldon Cooper assuring his friends he can’t be crazy, because “my mom had me tested!”
It’s unknown if the person who first thought that a two-person back court for volleyball, rather than a receiving corps of three, four, or even five, was ever “tested”, but it seems that some coaches favour it.
In week two of the local high school season, the Cayuga Junior girls took advantage of Dunnville’s use of that formation, with Cayuga’s regular opening server Addison Jepson putting nine over the net before the Panthers found a way to handle the ball. Although Dunnville managed a mid-game rally, the damage was already done, and Cayuga opened their three-game sweep of the other Haldimand group.
When Dunnville managed to put the ball into the Cayuga court, the fore court duo of Jenessa Lise and Noa McConachie added some definitive kills to the mix to keep the sextet in black and gold in control.
It appeared that Dunnville had found the answer to the strong serving from the Warriors for the second game, with most of the action centred around the net. This time, it was Nadia Cucuz and Sydney Thompson that tipped the scales in Cayuga’s favour, allowing them to steadily roll up the points.
Game three brought Cayuga’s spike serves back to centre stage, with several two and three serve runs. Halfway through the game, Jepson had her second round of serves, running the score from 12 to 17 in Cayuga’s favour before being substituted out to let someone else serve.
Next time they took control, Ava Muller added to the lead. After one more brief chance for Dunnville, Cayuga regained service, and Jenessa Lise closed out the game and match with three in a row over the net. Along the way, Cucuz added strong forecourt play with devasting blocks and kills.
County bragging rights were delayed due to weather, as Thursday’s game against Hagersville had to be rescheduled because of the school closure.
Early Friday morning, the team travelled to Paris for a nine-team tournament. Arguably, the highlight of the tournament for Cayuga might be their first-game victory over Bishop Ryan, a Hamilton Mountain school with upwards of 1,800 students. Because of the strong teams in their pool, they failed to advance to a semi-final, but it was apparent that they believed they can win, an attitude that should prove them to be strong adversaries moving forward.
The ones to watch, however, may be the aforementioned Hagersville Hurricanes. Tying for first in their pool, the single-A school met the triple-A Celtics from Bishop Ryan in one of the semi-finals and had runs where they managed to match them point-for-point, and even led at one time. The girls in green, however, were both bigger and stronger, as well as having more bench depth than the locals, and advanced to play the final against Caledonia’s McKinnon Park. While Caledonia’s girls put up a strong fight, Bishop Ryan ultimately took the gold.
