Buckeyes stopped in final

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This article was published 02/12/2015 (3568 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After a near-flawless season, the Miles Macdonell Buckeyes fell one game short of provincial glory.

The Buckeyes took on the St. Paul’s Crusaders for the Boston Pizza AAAA Volleyball Championships at Investors Athletic Centre on Nov. 30. The Buckeyes went into the final as the top seed, but they couldn’t get the best of the St. Paul’s boys. The Buckeyes fell 25-19, 25-22, and 25-19 to the Crusaders.

“The one game we didn’t play very well happened to be this one,” Tim Au, coach of the Buckeyes varsity boys volleyball team, said.

“It’s funny, we’ve done a lot of mental training this year,” Au reflected. “We’ve discussed different situations and uncontrollables. I think, being the favourites going into the big game was difficult. A few points didn’t go our way and it just snowballed.”

Despite the disappointing loss in the provincial final, Au counts the season — where his team went undefeated in league play —  as a success for the Buckeyes.

“We won our conference championship,” he said. “We were in finals or won all our tournaments. We won three out of five tournaments we were in. We had three losses this season, and one of them was on Monday.”

For many of the Bucks, this was their final shot at a provincial title, which has eluded Miles Mac since 2010. Kieran Smith, Everett Chartier, Zack Thielmann, Austyn Ducharme, Brandon Martens, Mitchell Keber, and Serge Girouard all graduate this year. Ducharme, Girouard, Thielmann, Keber, and Chartier were also honoured at Volleyball Manitoba’s Graduating All Star Banquet on Dec. 5.

Au said he is hopeful that the nine returning Grade 11s will apply all they learned from this season heading into next year.

“There will be some experience coming back next year for sure,” Au said. “I look forward to a good year next year.”

“I hope the Grade 12s take some life lessons from it and use it in future,” he added.

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