Senior champs three years running

    Parkside defeats Ingersoll for TVRA AA South-East senior boys' volleyball title

    Tuesday, November 6, 2018

By Rob J. Ross 

INGERSOLL, ON. - It was a welcomed challenge for the Parkside Stampeders.

Following a cruise control type ride through their regular season, the Stampeders had to shift gears during the Thames Valley Regional Athletics South-East AA senior boys' volleyball final at Ingersoll District Collegiate Institute.

After dropping game one of the best of five game match against the host Blue Bombers, Parkside won the next three games, to capture their third consecutive South-East playoff title.

"They (IDCI) battled hard. That was the first time in regular season play that we've seen adversity.  It was good for my boys to come back and take the second and come from behind to take both the third and fourth games," Parkside coach Chris Palmer said. "You rely on your key players to out perform their key players. On paper we're evenly matched squads. We can do all kinds of razzle dazzle fun stuff, but if you can't pass, set and hit the ball, you're not going to win. We wanted to make sure they had to shut down our key players."

The Stampeders didn't drop a game in 10 matches to handily win the South Division. In the South-East semifinals , Parkside quickly brushed aside Woodstock Huron Park, three games to none.

Ingersoll, undefeated in East Division play, took game one of the final, 25-19, much to the delight of a pro-Blue Bomber crowd.

"We started out slow, but then we started to pick it up and we just ploughed through the rest. We built off being down, having to come back," said Parkside co-captain Cole Gordon. "We flipped our middles and instead of starting me in the front row, I started in the back row. Then we switched it up through all of the sets."

A 25-23 game two victory knotted the match at one. Trailing game three 17-13, the Stampeders rallied to take game three, 25-22.

Game four was a marathon, with Ingersoll having leads of 6-1 and 19-14 and on three occasions a point away from forcing a fifth game, but the Stampeders prevailed, 32-20.

"We made a decision that we weren't going to go to five (games), so we just battled through," said Gordon, praising teammates for standout play. "Matt Bowlby, our middle, has been huge for us and Sean Donker, at power, has been lights out all season."

The Stampeders now head to the Western Ontario (WOSSAA) AAA tournament at Oakridge Secondary school in London, November 13th and will face London CCH in their semifinal.

Parkside and CCH met at a tournament in October.

"They (CCH) have a couple of solid players that we're going to have to try to neutralize," said Palmer. "We have to stay consistent and stay calm. We seem to get big ups and big downs and we lose three or four point spans and that takes us out of matches. We need to stay level and play good volleyball and forget the point that just happened."

In the junior final, Parkside fell to Ingersoll, three games to one. The Stampeders will join their seniors at Oakridge for WOSSAA.

Ingersoll is hosting the WOSSAA AA junior and senior tournament.