By Peter Bolo

 The Westisle No. 1 Mens volleyball team kicked off another season in impressive fashion, winning the gold medal at the recent Three Oaks Tipoff Tournament.  

The defending provincial champions and winners of this tournament last year won all three matches in their pool.  

The Wolverines defeated Three Oaks Senior High (TOSH) No. 2 in two straight games (25-10, 25-16), Bluefield 2-0 (25-14, 25-16) and Charlottetown Rural 2-0 (25-19, 25-23).  

They then met host TOSH No. 1 in the semifinal and came away with a 25-15, 25-19 victory to advance to the final against Cobequid Education Center from Truro, NS,.

The first game was an exciting back and forth affair, but with the score tied  22-22, the Wolverines captured the next three points to take the first game.  Game 2 saw a totally different result with CEC hammering Westisle 25-5. However, in the third and deciding game, Westisle bounced back and won a hard-fought 16-14 battle.  

Westisle’s No. 2 team finished with a 1-3 record.  

Westisle finished last season with an overall record of 34 wins and only four losses.  

They went undefeated in league play and won all four invitational tournaments they played in.  

The team has seven of their 10 players back, led by Grade 12 PEISAA All-Stars Brandon Boyce and Jeff Duggan, who also played on the provincial team this past summer.  

Westisle picked up three players from last year’s No. 2 team and have one Grade 10 player to round out the squad.  Westisle places among the elite teams in the Maritimes every year and the team hopes to continue this tradition in 2010.