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Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports 29 | Friday, May 31, 2013 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com "Connected to your Community" Oakville Trafalgar Red Devils player Nicole Reagan (with ball) soars through the air trying to elude a St. Jean de Brebeuf opponent during Wednesday's Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference senior girls' rugby final in Hamilton. OT romped to a 31-5 win over the Braves and will next compete in the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championships in Ottawa. The Red Devils won OFSAA gold last season and provincial bronze the year before. | photo by Herb Garbutt -- Oakville Beaver Trinity's Brand helps Burlington Defensa win national U18 gold Sports Briefs Holy Trinity high school student Courtney Brand helped Burlington-based Defensa win gold at the recent national under-18 girls' Division 1 volleyball championships in Edmonton. Defensa defeated Toronto's Diamonds Club in a three-set final after sweeping North Vancouver's BCO Elite in the semifinals and Oakville's Lakeside in the quarter-finals. The national gold is the second major medal this season for Brand, who captained the Holy Trinity Titans to their first-ever Courtney Brand provincial medal -- a bronze -- at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations AAAA championships in Ottawa last month. Niki Bozinoski, a Burlington resident who attends Abbey Park, also plays for Defensa. Locals attend U18 national hockey camp Several hockey players with Oakville connections attended a national women's under-18 strength and conditioning camp earlier this month at the University of Toronto. Among the invitees were local residents Alysia DaSilva, Victoria Bach, Rosie Heffernan and Kirsten Miller, Oakville Hornets intermediate AA players Savannah Newton and Jennifer MacAskill, and Appleby College student Nadine Edney. Newton, MacAskill and DaSilva also attend Appleby. The camp is considered an important first step in pinpointing the country's future women's hockey stars, including those who could one day be in the running to play for the national program in events such as the IIHF world championships and the Olympic Winter Games. Lacrosse trio earns NCAA D3 silver A trio of Oakville players helped the Rochester Institute of Technology earn silver at the NCAA Division 3 men's field lacrosse championships. Elliott Cowburn, Brad Gillies and Braden Wallace were part of the Tigers squad that reached the national final before dropping a 16-14 decision to Stevenson University Sunday at Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field. Gillies had a pair of assists in the loss for RIT, which trailed 5-0 before the game was six minutes old but rallied to take a 13-10 lead entering the fourth quarter. Cowburn was among a group of seniors who helped RIT win four conference titles and four trips to the NCAA tournament, including the school's first-ever NCAA final appearance. Defending OFSAA champs may be even better by Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver Staff Sydney De Marchi saw the dedication it took. The scrapes, the bruises, the games and practices in the boiling sun and the pouring rain. Her sisters played rugby for the Oakville Trafalgar Red Devils and though their teams were always successful -- OT has won 11 of the last 13 Halton senior girls' championships -- they seemed forever on the verge of a breakthrough at the provincial championships. De Marchi started playing rugby with the Oakville Crusaders a year before she came to OT in order to learn the game and hit the ground running when she started high school. Now, as the only four-year starter on the senior team, she has been a key contributor in the Red Devils' biggest successes: their first Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) medal -- a bronze two years ago -- and then, finally, their first provincial high school championship last year. "Everyone here saw so many seniors put so much into it. We saw them cry when they came so close." De Marchi said. "(Winning last year) was amazing but it wasn't just this team that won, it was every team that won and the coaches who started this team." OT now has the opportunity to write another chapter in its rugby history with a team that coach Dan Valley says is better than the one that won it all last year. "This is the year we were looking toward to make our big push," Valley said. "We have an incredibly talented group that played when the junior league started three years ago (winning Halton's inaugural junior girls' title in 2011) and we have a very strong group of Grade 12s. This was going to be the year. And so far, so good." The Red Devils went 9-0 in league play, outscoring opponents 404-35, and won a sixth consecutive Halton title last week with a 48-0 demolition of the St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders. OT then guaranteed itself a spot at the OFSAA tournament by crushing Hamilton's Bishop Ryan 61-5 Monday. Wednesday afternoon, the Devils added the Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference title with a 31-5 win over the Hamilton Catholic champions, the St. Jean de Brebeuf Braves. Five different players -- Taylor Wade, Hannah Howden, Brittany Greer, Ellie Cookson and Abbey Henley -- scored tries for OT while Charlotte Dunn kicked three converts. OT's final try gave the Red Devils 800 points for on the season, a mark never achieved before, even by last year's OFSAA champs. Meanwhile, they surrendered just 74 in posting a 21-2 record. But the final whistle had barely sounded Wednesday when Valley was asked by one of his players, "Will Belleville be there?" Centennial Belleville is one of the two teams to beat OT this year, shutting the Devils out 12-0. "They want another shot," Valley said. "But it doesn't matter, we've got to beat them all. When you get into those tight games with the top teams, it's what team shows up on that day." De Marchi has a good idea who that might be. Asked to compare last year's squad to this year's, she said, "every team is different, but there's a fire under this team." -- Follow Herb Garbutt on Twitter, @herbgarbutt