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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, March 8, 2013 | 18 Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports "Connected to your Community" Titans turn the tide Holy Trinity girls rally from 2-1 deficit to win OFSAA volleyball bronze in five sets by Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver Staff The Holy Trinity Titans had just let what seemed like a golden, or in this case bronze, opportunity slip away. Tied 1-1 and playing in the pivotal third set of the best-of-five provincial AAAA high school bronze-medal match Wednesday at Sheridan College, the Titans were trailing 17-12 and the game appeared to be slipping away. Then the Titans suddenly turned things around, taking 10 of the next 12 points and forcing the Glebe Gryphons to match point. But Glebe managed to reverse the Titans' momentum, taking the last three points to steal a 26-24 win and a 2-1 set lead. It could have been a devastating loss for the Titans in their bid to win the school's first Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations volleyball medal. But Dan Russell noticed a difference when the players returned to the bench. "We've dealt with emotions all year," the Trinity coach said. "Sometimes they're down, but they were more positive than usual." "We were confident we could get back in it," said middle Julia Kaczorwska. The Titans' confidence would be rewarded as they came back to even the match with a 25-22 win before dominating the deciding set, 15-4, to claim the bronze medal. "We really wanted it for the three Grade 12s," said Megan Nash. "They really deserved this." Rebecca Baptiste-Forbes, Courtney Brand and Jenna Black are the only graduating players and while the future may be bright for the eight returning players, it was the last chance for the trio. "It felt like it meant so much more for us," said Baptiste-Forbes. "It meant so much to go out with a bang." The Titans certainly did that, jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the deciding set and later reeling off eight straight points behind the twin attack of Nash and Baptiste-Forbes. When Nash hammered the ball into the middle of the Glebe backcourt for the Holy Trinity's Megan Nash (right) delivers a spike during Wednesday's OFSAA volleyball bronze-medal game at Sheridan College. | photo by Nikki Wesley -- Oakville Beaver -- @Halton_Photog final point, she and her teammates leapt in the air. While the final set was where they clinched their medal, the Titans won it in the previous set by showing their ability to bounce back from the narrow loss. Strong blocking by Kaczorwska and Kendra Wynter helped Trinity build a 13-6 lead before Nash took over with several big kills. "(Nash) just started scoring at will," Russell said. "We said, `If it's there, give it to her.' And we told her to be ready because the ball was coming to her. Even when the other team knew, they couldn't stop her." Glebe made one run, scoring five straight to work its way back into a game it trailed 18-10 at one point, but it would never get close enough to threaten. Trinity had also come back after dropping the opening set of the match, 25-17. As the Titans did in the final two sets, they took an early lead, scoring the first four points and building a commanding 18-5 lead on their way to a 25-9 victory earned largely on the strength of Kaczorwska's blocking. "She became a wall," Russell said. "She got into a rhythm in the second set and she took over the front row." "It isn't really something I focus on. Blocking comes and goes, but I got in a zone. It felt good to shut them down," said Kaczorwska, who plays with Nash and Baptiste-Forbes on the powerful Lakeside Volleyball Club's under-18 team. That team has already won two Ontario Volleyball Association premier tournaments and is ranked No. 1 in Ontario, heading into the provincial championships. It's a place the Titans hope to see themselves in a year's time. "This is great for our school," said Nash. "Next year, we're going for gold." Other members of the Titans OFSAA bronze medal-winning team are Kristen Wadley, Tu Nguyen, Danielle Henriques, Taylor Straub, Amanda Brown and coaches Vesna Branadic and Sandra Moretta. -- Herb Garbutt can be followed on Twitter @Herbgarbutt OFSAA basketball silver is King's Christian's reward for taking lumps in Halton play by Jon Kuiperij Beaver Sports Editor Even as they were being blown out in league play by much bigger schools, the King's Christian Collegiate Cavaliers continued to play with a purpose. "Any time we had an opportunity, we played games within the game, like let's score the next five points," said King's coach Eric Bulthuis, whose team -- forced to play in a division with the region's top Catholic teams because of the absence of public squads -- won just once during the Halton senior boys' basketball regular season. "Every time we were down in the fourth quarter, whether it was by 10 points or 30, we said, `What's our goal?' Our goal was to win a medal at OFSAA. Even when guys were pretty dejected in certain games, it was about what our goal was." It wasn't always fun having to play and think that way. It certainly wasn't in the Cavaliers' second-last game of the Halton season, an 87-35 defeat at the hands of the Holy Trinity Titans. "It was tough, man," said King's center Zack Moll. "For most of the guys, we all thought `this just sucks.' You didn't even want to play anymore. But you had to fight through it." The Cavaliers are certainly glad they did. All of that extra work put in during lopsided losses paid off in spades at the OFSAA single-A championships this week in North Bay. King's, ranked sixth in the tournament, won its first four games -- three of them by five points or less -- to reach the championship game before settling for silver with a 59-44 loss to top-seeded St. Patrick's Christian. "I'm a little bit surprised," admitted Moll. "I see Role on p.19