Mohawk defeated Seneca 3-1 to win a bronze medal at this year's OCAA Championships at Nipissing University in North Bay, ON (Feb. 23-25)//Photo by Dave Watson

In a rematch of last year’s Ontario Colleges’ Athletic Association bronze medal game, the Mohawk Mountaineers men’s volleyball team took to the court to face Seneca College.

“It feels really good,” said Ian Cameron, Mohawk’s player of the game in the bronze medal match. “This is the end of my career and I didn’t want to go home empty handed. After we pushed around the number one team in the country (Humber) and fell short, I was kind of disappointed but I wasn’t leaving this tournament without hardware.”

The Mountaineers beat Seneca (25-15, 15-25, 25-17 and 25-19) for the second time in the tournament, having opened the tournament with a five-set win (25-22, 22-25, 26-24, 22-25 and 15-8) over the Sting on Thursday (Feb. 23).

Cameron said he had more incentive than just a bronze medal in wanting to beat Seneca.

“In the first game (Seneca) picked on me and the ball control and took me out of the match, essentially, and that’s not the way I planned on finishing my career. So, what a good player does is they come back and they refocus and take it to those guys and I took it personally, that they had done that, and showed them what kind of player I am.”

Justin Scapinello, Mohawk’s leading scorer for the tournament (3.9 points per game), has won back-to-back bronze medals for Mohawk and said his team “battled through” the tension of opening the tournament to get the win over Seneca.

“It feels good,” he said about taking home a bronze medal. “It’s a little disappointing after (losing to Humber in the semi-finals) but the guys rebounded as well as we could have and got the job done.”

Mohawk’s setter, Mark Kaveckas, played big minutes in his second year with the team and credited his training to be able to step into a vital role on the court and contribute to winning a bronze medal.

“It feels pretty good. This is the first medal I actually earned as a player. This is my first time on the court winning a medal and it’s only my second year so it feels really good.”

Mohawk’s head coach, Matthew Schnarr, attributed his team’s win to the depth they have on the court as well as coming off the bench and said bronze medals are becoming a trend for Mohawk men’s volleyball.

“It’s familiar,” he said. “It’s the second year in a row we’ve won a bronze. We’ve been in that match four years running and to see the way we responded as a collection of people today on the court, you know having to use guys on the bench like Mo (Sulaiman), Jason Mendes, Justin DesRoche off the bench, and doing it that way speaks volumes of our team and how deep we really were.”

Having the depth that Mohawk employs certainly helps in a format like the OCAA Championships. Both Mohawk and Seneca had to play in the morning before their three o’clock p. m. start time. To start off the day and advance to the bronze medal match, Mohawk had to first beat the Durham Lords of Oshawa 3-0 (25-20, 25-21 and 25-18) while Seneca had to get passed the Algonquin Thunder of Ottawa and did so 3-1 (25-22, 20-25, 25-23 and 25-21).

Schnarr said his team’s depth helped in that Seneca looked tired, being a bigger and heavier team and having to play Algonquin after Mohawk beat Durham. Also, Schnarr was forced to utilize his team’s depth to replace Marcin Jedrzejewski in their first match against Seneca when the left side injured his ankle and could not continue in the tournament.

“I felt bad for him but I didn’t panic because I knew I had a guy like Andrew Ross, who passes the ball well, defends the hell out of the ball and is an energy guy,” said Schnarr about having to replace Jedrzejewski.

After defeating Seneca in day one of the tournament, it was a matchup of all-Canadians to determine who would advance to play for the Ontario Championship. Scapinello and Terrel Bramwell of Humber were named to the honour before the tournament started.

The Mountaineers looked like they might upset the top-ranked team in the tournament, winning the first two sets. But then Bramwell showed why he is highly regarded as the province’s best player, breaking two OCAA records during the match. Bramwell set records for kills (48) and points (52), adding two service aces and two stuff blocks as the Hawks came back to defeat the Mountaineers in five sets (22-25, 23-25, 25-18, 25-20 and 15-6) advancing to the gold medal match against the tournament’s host, Nipissing University.

“When you jump as high as he does, and you’re playing college ball, you can hit any shot in the world,” said Schnarr about not being able to stop Bramwell’s attacks. “And you see some of the shots he’s hitting – you can’t do anything with them in a college game – he’s above it. The only thing I have to say about him is, he needs to change his attitude because that guy is the face of our league and he’s really putting a really, really bad taste in people’s mouths on what we’re representing. So, on the record, he really needs to change his attitude.”

Bramwell is the leading scorer in the OCAA and certainly doesn’t shy away from the attention. His gestures towards his opponents and the crowd throughout his matches are not the actions of a humble player.

Looking ahead to next year, Schnarr said he is looking for “outside hitters.” Players such as Cameron and Scapinello will not be returning and Schnarr is going to have to find players to complement his talented players in the middle, such as Mendes and Kaveckas.

“These are my boys,” said Scapinello about his experience as a varsity volleyball player. “This is my family. It’s been two great years and I wish it didn’t have to end but it’s time to move on.”

The Hawks went on to capture a third straight OCAA gold medal for Humber in men’s volleyball, defeating the hosting Nipissing Lakers in straight sets (27-25, 25-20 and 25-22). The silver medal for Nipissing marks the first OCAA medal for the school in men’s volleyball.

Tournament MVP
Derek Quinn, Humber

Tournament All-Stars
Terrel Bramwell, Humber
Andre Brown, Humber
Ian Cameron, Mohawk
Peter Christian, Seneca
Scott Coulthard, Nipissing
Frankie Edgecombe, Nipissing

Justin Scapinello poses with girlfriend and creator of his "Justin-Credible" sign, Mackenzie Lawrence//Photo by Dave Watson

Andrew Ross poses with "Ross is Boss" sign created by Kristin VanHartingsveldt and Jessica Denstedt//Photo by Dave Watson