By Larry Moko
The Bishop Tonnos Titans have their eyes on the prize.
Seeded No. 8 at this week’s OFSAA girls’ AAA high school volleyball tournament in Barrie, Tonnos went undefeated in its four pool-play matches before winning a quarter-final on Tuesday night.
That advances the Titans to the next round Wednesday morning at Joan of Arc Catholic High School against Ottawa’s Franco-Cite (No. 2 seed). The other semifinal features the top-seeded Dunbarton Spartans of Pickering against London’s Banting Broncos (5).
Twenty teams are entered in the annual provincial event for regional champions.
“The girls are focused on medaling,” Tonnos coach Alvisia Maga said. “We’re in the top four now, so it’s something we want.”
The Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic league representatives downed the sixth-seeded York’s Thornlea Thunder, 3-0, in the opening playoff round (25-20, 25-18 and 25-12).
“It was a very dominant game by our kids,” Maga said. “We were in full command.
“We served tough again, but I would say it was an entire team effort. We took their tough middles out of the game.”
Earlier in the day, Tonnos rolled to a 2-0 decision over the host St. Peter’s Panthers.
Right off the bat, with Maryn Petrie serving, the Titans scored 14 consecutive points en route to 25-10 and 25-17 set victories.
“That gave our athletes confidence,” Maga said. “It was a stepping stone. They started to believe in themselves.”
Altogether, thus far, the Titans have won 11 of 12 sets against Kingston Frontenac, Sudbury Confederation, Kitchener Grand River, Barrie St. Peter’s and Thornlea.
In other quarter-final action, Franco-Cite topped Mississauga’s Gonzaga Bulldogs, 3-1, Dunbarton blanked St. Peter’s, 3-0, and Banting edged the Ancaster Royals, 3-2 (16-14 in the final set).
The gold-medal game Wednesday is scheduled for 5 p.m. at St. Joan of Arc.
In other OFSAA competition involving a Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic representative, the St. John Henry Newman Cardinals lost 58-40 to the seventh-seeded Eden Flyers Tuesday. That was a AAA boys’ basketball tournament game in Sarnia.
The 10-seeded Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference champions from Newman also lost their opener on Monday, 55-47 to the Pickering Trojans.
Leading up to OFSAA, Newman was 7-7 in the regular-season standings before eliminating the Bishop Tonnos Titans, St. Thomas More Knights, Bishop Ryan Celtics and Holy Trinity Titans in playoffs.