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Rams District senior volleyball
champs
Defeat St. Mary' s Warriors three games to one in senior girls AA final
to host WOSSAA AA tournament
February 16, 2023
By Rob J. Ross
LONDON, Ont. - The St. Joseph's Rams are District AA senior girls volleyball champions.
The Rams took care of the Woodstock St. Mary's Warriors, 25-19, 27-25, 21-25, 25-10, in the final, Feb 15 at Fanshawe College.
"I'm excited for WOSSAA," Rams' captain Taylor Arthur said. "We're hosting at St. Joe's, so we're all extremely excited for that."
St. Joe's will host the Western Ontario Secondary Schools Athletic Association (WOSSAA) AA senior tournament, Feb. 23, with the winner advancing to OFSAA, the high school provincial championship.
In the District final, St. Joe's grabbed the first two games of the best of five final.
"We played together as a team and that was a big thing and our talking was pretty good. There were a few moments that our communication wasn't great, but overall we were supporting each other and hat was really great," Arthur said. "Our covering. Our tips. Or even off the block, stuff like that was really good. We've definitely improved on that aspect throughout the season. At the beginning of the season, we weren't so great at that, but now we're there."
The Warriors avoided a match sweep, taking game three, but the Rams dominated a quick fourth game.
"We kind of laid down (for game 3)," admits Arthur. "Then we were like, let's pick it up, so we came back hard. We brought ourselves back up for sure."
Now the Rams have a shot at OFSAA, March 6-8, in St. Catherines. The WOSSAA host will use practices leading up to the regional tournament for continued improvement.
"I think we can really focus on and pinpoint the areas where we need to improve ourselves and we've always got to talk to each other on plays," Arthur said. "Our covering communication is a huge thing."
St. Joe's faces the Huron-Perth champion Stratford St. Mike's, in the semifinals, at 9 p.m., Thursday, February 23rd. London South and Ingersoll meet in the other semifinal. Winners meet in the gold match at 2 p.m., while losers go for bronze, at 12:30 p.m.
The Rams finished third in the TVRA South
Division, at 8-4, before eliminating London Regina Mundi, in the District AA
semifinals.
Rams Jr. champs
St. Joe's junior squad also won the District AA title, dusting both London Regina Mundi in the semifinals and John Paul II, in the final, three games to none.
The Rams are peaking at the right time, following a 3-6 regular season match record in the South Division.
St. Joe's host WOSSAA AA, Friday, Feb. 24th, with the Rams seeing Stratford St. Mike's, in the semifinals, at 9 p.m. Ingersoll and London Clarke Road clash in the other semi.
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