Unreal victories as Mavs dominate nationals

There wasn’t a whole lot of drama to it – no heart-stopping rallies with the game on the line anyways – as the Mavericks didn’t trail once in the playoff round, capped by a 25-16, 25-12 victory over Winnipeg’s Bisons in the championship final.

But what they got was even more treasured – a display of near-perfect defence and solid all-around play as they recorded wins by point totals that attest to their dominance from the start of each game.

“It’s a cliché, but we couldn’t have had any more of a team effort,” said head coach Jeff Mooney, who led his squad to the first national title in history for the east end-based club. “The kids pulled it together on the last day. Our goal was to get stronger every match and they did just that.”

The May 1-3 tournament began with the Mavs’ lone three-set contest, against Calgary’s Dinos, followed by straight-set wins in their next five pool games. The team that was seeded 25th at nationals – the result of losing in the quarter-finals of the Ontario championships – never looked back from there, breezing past the champions of three different provinces during the playoff rounds.

“It was unreal – just unreal,” said setter Chris Spack, a Grade 11 Colonel By student. “We knew we could do it. We came into this tournament knowing every game would be close – apparently not – but we played every point as if we were down and had to fight back.”

The 25-22, 25-16 semi-final triumph over London’s Forest City was especially treasured by the Mavericks since that was the squad that beat them in the gold medal game of last year’s Canadian championships – the second time in a row that Mavericks group had to settle for silver at nationals.

“That was a sweet piece of revenge,” noted Béatrice-Desloges student Jérémie Lortie. “Every year we finished second at nationals, so this year we weren’t going to do that.”

Event organizer Bob O’Doherty told the Mavericks during the championship presentation that the possibility of crowning a local club at home was a big part of the reason he bid to host the event four years ago.

“It was amazing. I’m so glad it was in Ottawa,” said right-side Jori Mantha, who will return along with Spack to the 18U Mavs next season. “Having the crowd, having the thundering boom of their cheers was fantastic – I couldn’t have hoped for anything better.”

Phil James – who accumulated four block kills as the Mavericks jumped out to a 12-3 lead in the decisive set of the gold medal final – was named MVP, and was joined on the tournament all-star team by Mantha, as well as his fellow middle blocking sensation, Lortie, who will attend Université Laval this fall.

Many other Mavericks will move on to play post-secondary volleyball next year, and they couldn’t have closed their youth careers with a better final chapter.

“One thing we did this tournament was that we said, ‘We’re all friends, let’s just go have fun out there,’” Lortie noted. “When we scored that last point, we all jumped together, and to be with friends and teammates that have been together for so long – it was just amazing.”