The Collingwood Cavaliers have cranked their tennis championship streak all the way up to 11.
The Cavs earned their 11th straight AA team tennis title in dominant fashion, beating Victoria’s St. Michaels University School 7-3 in the championship final played at Burnaby Lake Tennis Club May 24-26.
As is usually the case, however, the Cavaliers did not go completely unchallenged on their way to the title. Collingwood opened the tournament with wins over University Hill and Immaculata in pool play to set up a quarterfinal against Archbishop Carney that turned into a slugfest.
The two teams were evenly matched, tied 4-4 through the first eight games. At that point it actually looked like Carney had the advantage in the remaining matchups, said Collingwood athletic director Dave Speirs, but the Cavaliers came through when the tournament was on the line.
“The kids just stepped up,” said Speirs. The mixed doubles pair of Lachlan Robertson and Neeki Alavi teamed up to score the decisive victory as Collingwood came away with a razor-thin 6-5 win.
Following the win over Carney the Cavaliers kicked their game back into high gear, defeating Shawnigan Lake 8-3 in the semifinals before blasting past SMUS in the final.
The boys doubles team of Conor Robertson and Rylan Hastings got the ball rolling in the final with a hard-fought tie-breaker win, while both girls doubles teams of Alavi with Liz Mathisen and Maya Negris with Amy Young earned victories to push Collingwood to a big early lead over SMUS.
Robertson then scored a singles win on the boys side and Isabel Drouin won in a tiebreaking thriller on the girls side to give the Cavaliers a massive 5-1 lead. Roberston then teamed up with Grace Drouin for the decisive win in mixed doubles.
Negris and Young, who have played doubles together at Collingwood for the past three years, ended the tournament with a perfect 9-0 record to earn the AA girls doubles MVP award.
Robertson, who is only in Grade 8, was named the AA provincial boys MVP after going 5-0 in the tournament in singles play and 3-0 in mixed doubles action.
The run of 11-straight championships started under the guidance of legendary head coach Al Rose, who created the provincial high school championships way back in 1975 before coming to dominate them during his tenure at Collingwood. Rose retired after a win in 2016, with coach Andy Wong stepping in to keep the streak alive the past two years.
“We’re lucky we’ve got some phenomenal young players,” said Speirs, adding that the coaches do a good job of finding the talent and putting the players in positions where they can succeed. “Andy has always got his finger on the pulse of the Hollyburn tennis world, or anybody else who can play tennis from our school.”
A championship streak that reaches 11 years may seem like a cakewalk for a powerhouse program, but nearly every year there seems to be at least one match that comes down to the wire like this year’s quarterfinal.
“We’ve had to beat some pretty good teams over the years,” said Speirs. “No one is just giving it to us.”
