Mayfield vice-principal Dan Bowyer presented the senior girls' volleyball captains, Jenn Sheldrake and Olivia Clarke with the team's OFSAA consolation plaque. The team won the consolation championship last Wednesday, 2-1, over the Waterloo Vikings. Photo by Jon Yaneff It was clearly the toughest pool at the AAAA senior girls' volleyball Ontario Federation of School Athletics Associations (OFSAA) championships, with three top 10 teams in Ontario.

The eighth ranked Mayfield Mavericks were one of Pool B's powerhouses, looking to make some noise, as the primary host of the tournament, taking place March 10 and 11.

After losing two of three games on the Tuesday, against ninth-ranked Aurora High School and thirdranked Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute, Mayfield found themselves relegated to the consolation bracket. Mayfield won the consolation championship over the sixth ranked Waterloo Vikings, splitting the first two games, winning 26-24 and losing 25-14, before capturing the tiebreak, 15-11, Wednesday at Mayfield.

"To win in front of out home fans is a great privilege," said Mavs' head coach Ken Jone. "We had some big plays from everybody in our starting lineup."

Once again setter Jenn Sheldrake ran the offence, but left-side Michaela Reesor was dominating everywhere on the court, from her strong passing game and immaculate edge at the net, blocking and spiking. Reesor spiked home the winning points after a 24-24 tie in the first game, which was virtually point-for-point. After the Vikings broke out to a 15-8 lead, Waterloo ran away with the 25-14 win, but Mayfield didn't give up, holding on for the four-point win in the tiebreak. Reesor finished off the victory once again, pounding the ball, having it land securely in the Waterloo end.

Though they lost, Waterloo may have been in an uneasy state of mind. They had tragedy hit them Friday when a former teammate succumb to cancer after a two-year battle and had the funeral Monday during the tournament.

"Certainly a lot of teammates felt the emotions," said Jone. "We've seen what they're capable of in other tournaments this year, so a tragedy like that has got to effect their toughness and mental state a little bit."

Later that day, the Aurora Eagles ended up beating Birchmount for the OFSAA championship, three games to one in the best-of-five gold/silver medal game, winning 25-22, 19-25, 25-21 and 25-23.

Because of the way things turned out, Mayfield can feel good that they lost to the best.

"You've got to give credit where credit's due," said Jone, about his Pool B opponents. "At least for us, though we played in the consolation rounds, we know since Aurora and Birchmount were in the finals, we were beaten by the better teams."

In the first day of the tournament, Mayfield lost to Aurora, 2-0, getting downed 25-20, 25-23. They also were beat by Birchmount in their final game of the Tuesday, losing 2-0 (25-18, 26-24). The only win in the opening day was their second game of the tournament, beating Aurora 2-0 (25-14, 25-20).

On the Wednesday, after being relegated to the consolation bracket, Mayfield beat the 16th ranked Beatrice-Desloges in two straight games (25- 13, 25-20) in the quarterfinals. They then beat Michael Power (number 13), 2-1 (14-25, 25-15, 15- 13), in the semifinal matchups. Waterloo won their semifinal as well, 2-0 (26-24, 25-22) over the 12th ranked Vincent Massey squad to qualify for the final.

The future for the Mavericks though looks bright, with nearly half their starting lineup returning next season, including Reesor, who at Grade 10, has two more seasons left on the hard court. Mayfield also has many junior players to fill the spots of the six Grade 12's leaving the squad. They include captains Sheldrake and middle/leftside Olivia Clarke, leftside/ libero Karly Roberts, libero Elizabeth Monkman, left-side Jaime Trueland and right-side/setter Julie Truong. The new senior team will be without coach Jone, who is stepping down to the junior level to replace veteran coach Cheryl Lenders (five plus years). She will exit to concentrate on coaching the volleyball club scene. In conjunction, senior assistant coach, Heather Stewart will replace Jone.