Tigers roar to victory in Musgrave Harbour

TWILLINGATE - A reversal of fortunes.

That's what it was for the senior boys' volleyball team from J.M. Olds Collegiate on Nov. 7-8, when they participated in an invitational volleyball tournament at Musgrave Harbour and brought back gold.

Participating in the annual Volleyball Fest at Memorial University a couple of weeks earlier, the JMOC Tigers had won their first five games and then were taken out by the Musgrave Harbour team. That ended the Tigers' chances of advancing, being forced because of the defeat to drop out of the tournament that had over 100 male and female teams competing from across the province.

Then in Musgrave Harbour on Friday, they faced Grand Falls-Windsor for their first match and were soundly beaten with two games to nil in the best-of-three series. However, they rebounded in their second match to defeat Musgrave Harbour by the same margin. Suddenly they realized that if they could beat Musgrave Harbour, they could win this tournament. However, the next matchup was against a spirited Carmanville team and although the Tigers played well, they lost by 2-1. In the final round-robin against Conne River, they were faced with having to win to reach the semi-finals.

Coach Barry Grimes noted that despite Conne River taking the first game 25 -19, the Tigers "bounced back" and won the second set 25-21 thereby forcing a third and final game.

"They were down 9-3 at one point," he said, "but they came roaring back to win 15-11 to claim the match 2-1. From that point, they never looked back."

The Tigers, living up to their name, went on to take Carmanville 2-1 in the semi-final and blank Musgrave Harbour 2-0 in the final.

Grimes was exceptionally pleased. The team played remarkably well when it was necessary, he said, and deserved to be congratulated.

"In fact, all teams played well and were great ambassadors for their schools," he said, "but we brought home the gold."