Cougars roar into provincial volleyball championships

The Sault College Cougars will look for a medal performance to put an end to a solid season.

After becoming the lone varsity team from Sault College to qualify for the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) playoffs, the Cougar women's volleyball team begins the provincial playoff tournament in Toronto on Thursday.

The eighth seeded Cougars open against an undefeated Durham College team that holds the first seed at 2 p.m.

After the eight playoff teams each play an opening round game on Thursday, the winners will continue in the championship bracket while the losers will play in the bronze medal bracket on Friday. Medal winners will be crowned on Saturday.

Should a team lose both their Thursday and Friday games, they would be eliminated. At least one victory would send a team into the final day of competition on Saturday.

The Cougars qualified for the tournament after a playoff victory over Seneca College at Sault College on Friday night. Sault College defeated the Sting 25-19, 21-25, 25-23 and 25-21.

Based on their clutch playoff performance last week, Sault College head coach Jeremy Murdoch feels his team is a legitimate contender for a bronze medal.

"We're not expecting to win gold and I'm not being pessimistic about it but the top two teams are very strong and undefeated," said Murdoch. "We can play with the rest of the teams and I think we have good shot of getting into the bronze medal game.

"Based on our game against Seneca, we are ready to go. We had a complete team effort and we played really well together as far as covering each other and backing each other up.

If we continue to play like that then we are going to fare really well. Even if we lose to Durham, I'm expecting to win on Friday against either Nippissing or Fanshawe."

Murdoch has been happy with the continued development of his team this season and feels that they are starting to gel at the right time.

"We had some raw talent coming in here at the beginning of the season and some good returnees as well. It was just a matter of gelling the rookies and the veterans together and I've seen a dramatic improvement in every player on the roster since the start of the year. We are definitely fulfilling our potential."

*** BASKETBALL:

The Sault College Cougars men's basketball squad narrowly missed the OCAA playoffs after dropping a 90-55 decision to Fanshawe College in London on the weekend. Jeff Rennison led the Cougars with 15 points.

Sault College finished the season with a 6-6 record while the women's basketball team completed their first year in the OCAA with a 2-8 mark.

PHOTO: 2003/04 Sault College women's volleyball team