Kali Chiasson’s forehand was on the money Saturday as she and her Jr. Girls Huskies teammates came through with gold medals at the NSSAF table tennis provincial tourney at CBHECA.
-by Bill Dunphy
There’s nothing better than winning a championship for your school – except maybe winning three of them.
The Cape Breton Highlands Huskies did just that on Saturday, winning three of the six Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation provincial table tennis banners that were up for grabs at the Terre Noire School.
The Junior Girls, Intermediate Girls, and Intermediate Boys banners all went to Cape Breton Highlands Education Centre Academy.
In the Intermediate Girls category it came down to a final match between CBHECA and Musquodoboit.
With provincial player Carmen van Wychen on the team, Musquodoboit was almost guaranteed to take a 3-0 lead defeating all CBHECA players. But in team table tennis it comes down to the overall strength of the three players and the one spare player on the team to get the five necessary wins in a team match.
CBHECA players Bailey Andrews and Leah Burns both defeated Musquodoboit’s Alyssa Jones and Tanya Fleck, but Fleck had defeated the Huskies’ Matt Burns. With the match score at 4-4, it came down to the final match between Jones and Burns, with Burns securing the banner beating Jones 3-1 (11-8, 7-11, 11-7, 12-10).
“It was crazy,” said Burns. “At one point I got kind of woozy and started over-correcting myself. But a pep talk from John (coach MacKinnon) which helped me refocus.
“It’s a lot different than other tournaments; you’re playing, but you’re playing for your team and your school,” said Burns.
That was the pressure being felt by Steeve LeFort and Garrett MacKinnon, who played two Cobequid Education Centre players at the same time on two tables next to each other, with the Huskies’ players needing just one of them to win to clinch a gold medal.
Again, a balanced team proved to be the decisive factor with all matches being close contests. En route to the final, CBHECA had to squeak by Musquodoboit (5-4) after Musquodoboit leading 4-3.
After LeFort tied it up to 4-4 by defeating Musquodoboit’s Jeremy Pinkham in a very close match (3-2: 11-9, 11-8, 9-11, 14-16, 12-10), Garrett MacKinnon made sure that CBHECA could advance to the gold medal game to make it 5-4 for the Huskies by downing Hunter van Wychen (3-0: 11-4, 11-4, 11-4).
The banner-deciding match against CEC saw a similar scenario. This time it was CBHECA leading 4-3 after three wins by Ben Carmichael against CEC’s Nehir Hakverdi (3-2: 11-7, 11-13, 6-11, 11-6, 15-13), Brett Spencer (3-0: 11-8, 11-5, 11-4), and Ryan Spencer (3-0: 11-6, 11-8, 11-90), and one by LeFort against Adam Nisal (3-0: 11-8, 11-1, 11-9).
However, CEC tied it up to 4-4 when Hakverdi defeated LeFort (3-2: 11-13, 12-10, 11-5, 11-13, 13-11).
As in the previous match against Musquodoboit, so it was again that MacKinnon was able to gain the Huskies’ 5-4 match victory and the provincial banner when he beat Brett Spencer (3-0: 11-9, 11-6, 12-10).
The CBHECA Junior Girls scored relatively easy wins against New Ross Consolidated (5-1) and l’École acadienne de Truro (5-0) with two matches won by grade six player Kaye Hart, but had to dig deep against archrival Musquodoboit to capture the banner (5-3).
Provincial and CBHECA player Kali Chiasson put three expected victories on the score sheet against Taylor Newman (3-0: 11-9, 11-7, 11-4), Emily MacInnis (3-0: 11-5, 11-5, 11-3), and Kaci Whitenect (3-1: 11-6, 9-11, 11-7, 11-3).
Decisive for capturing the banner were Sydney Gale’s matches against Kaci Whitenect (3-2: 11-8, 6-11, 10-12, 16-14, 11-8) and Gabrielle Jones (3-0: 11-9, 11-4, 11-3).
While the two Intermediate teams successfully defended banners won last year, it was the fifth consecutive year for CBHECA’s Junior Girls team to win a provincial title.
The CBHECA Junior Boys (Ashton Crowdis, Dylan Jenkins, Simon Fraser) managed a bronze medal with two grade six students on the team showing a lot of potential but Wolfville and Musquodoboit proved to be still too strong.
The CBHECA Senior Boys Huskies defeated the Dalbrae Academy Dragons 5-2 (best 5 of 9 matches), with Campbell Hart coming away with three victories against Cody MacDonald (3-2: 11-5, 11-7, 3-11, 9-11, 11-9 in best 3 of 5 games), Duncan Rankin (3-1: 11-6, 11-6, 7-11, 11-6), and Scott Ross (3-1: 11-4, 11-4, 9-11, 11-9).
CBHECA’s Robert MacKinnon and Caylum Poirier scored single victories against Cody MacDonald (3-0: 11-6, 12-10, 11-2) and Scott Ross (3-1: 9-11, 15-13, 11-3, 11-8).
The Dalbrae wins came from Rankin against MacKinnon (3-1: 13-11, 9-11, 12-10, 11-3) and Poirier (3-1: 11-6, 11-9, 9-11, 11-8).
The CBHECA Senior Girls improved over last year by capturing the silver medal instead of the bronze.
Division 1 school Cobequid Education Centre handed the Huskies a 5-0 loss on the way to a provincial banner, although Avery LeLièvre put on some stiff opposition to Alyssa Dykeman (2-3: 11-7, 9-11, 11-5, 4-11, 9-11) and Eilish Keaveney (2-3: 10-12, 11-9, 4-11, 11-9, 9-11).
A 5-0 victory against River Hebert sealed the silver medal with two wins from LeLièvre against Taylor Vance (3-0: 11-5, 11-3, 11-4) and Sarah Beardsley (3-0: 11-6, 11-3, 11-7) and Taylor Boudreau-Deveaux, Kenzie LeBlanc, and Darcie LeFort completing the five needed winning matches.
The Huskies were represented in each of the Senior, Intermediate, and Junior categories, thanks to a sweep of the divisions at the Highland Region meet held at the school a week earlier.
Dalbrae Academy joined the Senior Boys category by replacing the Capital Region representative as the 2nd place finisher in the Highland Region.
Cape Breton Highlands hosted the NSSAF team table tennis championships in Terre Noire after the Capital Region reneged on organizing Capital Regional championships and, therefore, giving up hosting rights for provincials.
In the Highland Region event, due to lack of opposition, the CBHECA Junior Girls (Kali Chiasson, Sydney Gale, and Kaye Hart) and CBHECA Junior Boys (Dylan Jenkins, Simon Fraser, and Ashton Crowdis) advanced automatically to the NSSAF provincials.
The Intermediate and Senior teams had to overcome the Dalbrae Dragons to get there.
The CBHECA Intermediate Boys (Ben Carmichael, Garrett MacKinnon, and Steeve LeFort) defeated Dalbrae A (Keenan Freimanis, Scott Ross, and Spencer van den Hoogen) 5-0 for the banner.
The CBHECA Intermediate Girls (Bailey Andrews, Mikayla Jenkins, and Leah Burns) defeated their Dalbrae counterparts 5-1.
The Intermediate boys of Dalbrae B were sparring partners for the CBHECA Junior Boys.
After a convincing win (5-1) over the Senior B team of CBHECA (Will Ross, Nick Roach, and Ethan Fraser), the Dalbrae Senior Boys team of Cody MacDonald, Noah Dunn, and Duncan Rankin faced the CBHECA A team of Campbell Hart, Robert MacKinnon and Caylum Poirier.
Even though the Huskies advanced with the final score of 5-0, three of those matches went the distance.
Robert MacKinnon was close to defeat twice against Noah Dunn and Duncan Rankin, but he rallied to 3-2 victories after being behind 0-2 in games.
Campbell Hart also came back from a 0-2 score in games and being behind 5-8 in the third game against Duncan Rankin, before he recovered to win the third game 11-9 and then the next two for a 3-2 victory.
The Dalbrae Senior Boys team also advanced to the provincials taking the place of the Capital Region spot where no regionals were taking place as a result of the work-to-rule action of the NSTU.
In other table tennis news, Junior Girls player Kali Chiasson was silver medalist in the U-15 girls and U-18 girls doubles category at the Nova Scotia Closed Championships in Middle Musquodoboit on April 22nd and was selected to the Nova Scotia U-15 team to compete at the Atlantic championships on May 20th to 21st in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
Intermediate Boys player Garrett MacKinnon lost in the semifinal at the N.S. Closed but was still selected to the Nova Scotia U-15 Boys team. Depending on their results at the Atlantics they may qualify for Team Atlantic to play at the national championships in July.
