B L A Z I N G F A S T B A L L Character of team showed in bronze-medal game, coach says continued from p.26 medal, we were proud of the achievement, but we were most proud of them for turning it around because I know how hard it is to play after a significant loss," Vitas said. "When I say character, that's the type of character we were looking for and hoping for. To see that in the bronze-medal match validated what we'd seen all season long." Lakeside was seeded fifth at easterns, but won five of its first six games before the semifinal loss to Markham. Lakeside defeated Ottawa Fusion (25-6, 26-28, 15-11), Wesletville Pearson Astros (25-10, 25-23) and Ottawa Maverick Renegades (25-16, 1925, 15-13) in the opening round of pool play, then lost to Ottawa Maverick Wildcards (25-13, 18-25, 15-13) and downed Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce (25-20, 25-12) and Kingston Pegasus (25-17, 25-17) in the second round. The four top finishers at eastern Canadians were clubs from Ontario. The U15 boys, who also won two gold, a silver and a bronze at Ontario Volleyball Association tournaments earlier this season, are Lakeside's first boys' team to Nik Vitas Lakeside volleyball coach medal at eastern Canadians or nationals. Lakeside's U18 girls finished second at eastern Canadians in 2012. "We had a good group of guys, a bunch of athletes on the team. I asked a lot of them, especially training three times a week, and they responded well. Even when they weren't in the gym, they were doing a lot to get ready," said Vitas. All but two members of the team are from Oakville, including Thomas Da Silva, Mark Dodds, Griffin Dubbeld, Dino Karic, Matt Luxton, Calvin Onate, Luka Pupovac, Ryan Tautris and Thomas Williams. Thomas Kelly and Liam Irwin are Burlington residents. Katie Turton also coaches the team. Lakeside will host free open house `skills and drills' events next week for boys currently in Grade 9 who want to learn more about volleyball. The clinics will take place Wednesday, May 14 and Friday, May 16 at Queen Elizabeth Park Community Centre, both running from 6-7:30 p.m. No registration is required. For more information, log onto Lakeside's website at www.lakesidevb. com. 27 | Friday, May 9, 2014 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com Iroquois Ridge Trailblazers left-hander Jonah Lazar delivers a pitch during Monday's Halton high school baseball contest at Milton Community Park. The Trailblazers routed the host Jean Vanier Knights 20-6 in the first game of the Tier 2 season for both teams. Ridge will take on the T.A. Blakelock Tigers Monday at River Oaks Recreation Centre, beginning at 3:30 p.m. | photo by Eric Riehl -- Oakville Beaver -- @Halton_Photog I know how hard it is to play after a significant loss. Inline hockey national tryouts tomorrow in Mississauga Hockey has provided Lindsay Grigg with some incredible experiences. She earned a scholarship to the Rochester Institute of Technology where she helped the Tigers win an NCAA Division 3 title, scoring the overtime winner in the national semifinal. Then she helped RIT make the transition to Division 1 and scored another clutch overtime goal that won the Tigers a conference title. But for all her success on the ice, it's her summer pursuit that has given her the opportunity to represent her country and travel the world. This summer, Grigg will play in her fifth Inline Hockey World Championships. This year in Toulouse, France, she'll be pulling double duty as a player on the senior team and an assistant coach on the junior (under-19) team. "Some of the places I've been to (because of inline hockey)," she said, "I mean, Colombia, who would have ever thought I would have gone to Colombia?" It was in Colombia that Grigg helped Canada win the world title after being tantalizingly close in her previous three trips to worlds. It's an experience that Grigg, who started playing inline hockey at the age of 10, would like other players to have. Tomorrow (Saturday), Canada Inline will hold tryouts for the senior and junior teams at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga from 10 a.m.-noon. Grigg said the skills from ice hockey are transferrable and has found that it has helped her game on ice in terms of play recognition and stick handling. "Not a lot of girls know about the sport," Grigg said. "We want to get as many out (to the tryouts) as we can to promote roller hockey for girls and get as many girls into the game for the future. If you have the hockey skills, you can adapt and pick it up very fast." For more information or to download a registration form for the tryouts, visit www.canadainline.com. Players can also register the day of the tryouts. -- Herb Garbutt -- Jon Kuiperij can be followed on Twitter @Beaversports REBATES ARE BACK! ACT NOW!! UP TO Former Oakville Hawks player to compete in NCAA field lacrosse tournament Oakville Minor Lacrosse Association product Jonathan Newhouse will play in the NCAA Division 1 field lacrosse championships tomorrow (Saturday) in Baltimore. Newhouse and his University of Albany Great Danes teammates will face the Loyola University Maryland Greyhounds in the first Jonathan Newhouse (in yellow). round of the NCAA tournament. | photo submitted The game will be televised nationwide in the United States on ESPNU. Albany defeated the University of Maryland Baltimore County 20-11 last weekend to win the America East Conference title for the second year in a row. Newhouse is a graduate of The Hill Academy, an independent high school for student athletes, in Vaughan. RECEIVE $ IN REBATES 2800 $1450 FACTORY REBATE UP TO + UNION GAS REBATE $700 UP TO $ CALL NOW, QUANTITIES ARE LIMITED! 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