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Two Down, A National Title To Go
By STEVE GREEN, Free Press Sports Reporter Two teams, two provincial volleyball championships. Now Jill Pardy has a chance to add a national title to the mix. Pardy, a power hitter, led the Dorchester Beavers to the Ontario A high school girls' title on their home court in March and last weekend co-captained the Forest City junior (20-and-under) squad to a provincial crown in Toronto, the first for a London junior women's team in more than 25 years. But that's where the similarities end. While the Beavers were a solid medal favourite as the No. 2 seeds, the Forest City juniors went in seeded seventh and followed the upset trail. A 25-14, 25-18, 15-25, 21-25, 15-13 win over the No. 1 Burlington Blaze capped a sweep of the top four seeds. Now they're off to the nationals May 3-5 in Calgary. "OFSAA was amazing because everyone was there and everything was louder, " Pardy says. "But this one almost feels bigger because it's at a higher competitive level. Plus, you get to play with a lot of girls you play against in high school. They're like your other volleyball friends." Club volleyball brings together the best of the high school ranks, so Pardy was far from the team's only top-notch player. Co-captain Lindsay Doughty, who played right-side hitter instead of her normal power position, and setter Courtney Lawson helped lead the Oakridge Oaks to the Ontario AAA silver this year. Libero Deanna Nelson and middle blocker Christie Estabrooks played on a strong Saunders Sabres side. "Deanna's an amazing digger -- nothing really gets past her, " Pardy says. "And Courtney got us every ball in always the perfect position. So all of us played an important role. " For the five Oaks on the Forest City team -- Doughty, Lawson, Lisa Downey, Christy Wood and Rachel Reardon -- the 29-27, 27-25 semi final win over the Waterloo Tigers was payback for the OFSAA AAA final in Waterdown in March, which the Oaks lost to Kitchener Forest Heights Trojans. Tigers star Sarah Pavan, a 15-year-old, six-foot-four middle blocker some consider the best in the world for her age, played for Forest Heights and overwhelmed the Oaks. "Of course," Doughty said with a laugh when asked if revenge was on the agenda. "It was pretty much right there for all of us. " Doughty added that being an underdog in the minds of other teams helped. "We expected a lot of ourselves but I know most of the other teams didn't expect us to do much. " Head coach Dave Cole, who joked he might quit after his only season as a head coach -- "There's nowhere to go but down" -- says his team's streaky nature went the right way at the right time. "We've had an 11th place and a seventh place this year and we've also won a silver and a bronze (in tournaments), " he said. "With this being my first time as a head coach, I didn't know what to expect. Basically, I just wanted to teach the girls everything I could and see how well we could do from there." Doughty and many of her teammates will be playing in their fourth national championship (the others coming in other age groups). But Cole, a Dorchester graduate who played university volleyball at Windsor and helped Western women's coach Dean Lowrie last season, knows his team won't have it easy. "Most of the teams there will have university junior (junior varsity) players while our whole starting line-up is made up of high school players. But I'm hoping for top five, at least." If the provincials are anything to go by, that may not be a bad bet.
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