The Wolves men's volleyball team made a trip back to the OCAA Provincial Championships for the first time since the 2016-2017 season. Let's take a look back at the season that was for coach Jelle Kooijman's squad.
Regular Season
Algonquin had a tough schedule out of the gate starting with their first 5 matches on the road. They opened up the season with a big 3-2 win in Oshawa over the Durham Lords on October 21st. The team would go on to win their next 2 against the Loyalist Lancers and the La Cité Coyotes to finish off their October schedule 3-0. The Start of November wasn't as kind as a road trip to Seneca and Georgian resulted in two 3-0 losses. Needless to say it was time for the Wolves to play in front of their home crowd at the ARC.
The ARC was a good place to play for the Wolves as they finished with a 8-1 home record. Their only blemish came in the final home game of the regular season at the hands of the Canadore Panthers. One of the most impressive home wins came the night prior on February 3rd. Algonquin took down the Georgian Grizzlies who were the top team in the OCAA East and 5th seeded team in the CCAA.
As kind as home was to the Wolves, the road was not. 4 of their 5 regular season losses happened outside of Ottawa. The team finished off in Toronto where they picked up a win at George Brown and fell at the hands of the Centennial Colts. They finished the season with a 13-5 overall record, good for the 3rd seed in the OCAA East.
OCAA Qualifying Game
Finishing 3rd in the OCAA East meant a date with the Niagara Knights in the qualifying game. The Knights finished 6th in the OCAA West. Algonquin made quick work of Niagara winning in straight sets. The win earned them a spot on the OCAA Provincial Championships hosted by the Fanshawe Falcons in London Ontario.
OCAA Awards Banquet
On Wednesday February 22nd the top 8 teams in Ontario gathered at the OCAA awards banquet for a chance to honour the team and individual accomplishments throughout the 22-23 season. Three Wolves players left the banquet with some hardware. Jeff Commerford and Pras Jeyapalasingham were named OCAA East 1st Team All-Stars. Connor Finnie was named an OCAA East 2nd Team All-Star.
OCAA ¼ Final vs Humber (3-0 Loss)
On Thursday at 1:00 PM the Wolves took on the reigning Provincial Champion Humber Hawks. Humber finished 2nd in the OCAA West with a 13-5 regular season record. They earned a spot in the Championships by defeating the Fleming Knights in the qualifying game. The Hawks experience proved to be a factor as they got off to a quick start. Algonquin battled back to make it close but the Humber eventually took the 1st set 25-19. Algonquin seemed to find their game in the 2nd set. They held a slim lead for most of the set. Unfortunately a late Hawks run ended in a 27-25 win for the team in white. Humber proved to be too much in the final set winning it 25-13 completing the sweep. The silver lining is that Humber only lost 2 sets all weekend on route to their 2nd straight OCAA championship. Jeff Commerford finished the match with 11 points including 10 kills and 1 ace. Matheus Braz was named player of the game with 9 kills and 12 digs.
The 2022-23 men's volleyball season was one to remember. The team put on a show for their home fans all season long and earned a spot in the Provincial Championships. With most of the roster set to return next season they should be a force in the East in 2023-24.