The Gravenhurst High School badminton team fell just shy of earning a berth to the all-provincial finals, Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) tournament.

Karly Barrington-Little and Iain Irvine finished third at the Georgian Bay Secondary School Association (GBSSA) tournament hosted in Orillia last week.

After finishing with an undefeated record in their first three matches against two Innisdale schools and École Secondaire Nouvelle-Alliance, they fell short against the team from Park Street, the eventual tournament winners.

Park Street was undefeated including a win against the Bracebridge and Muskoka Lakes Secondary School team of Jacob Schandlen and Serena Deketele.

GHS did not lose without a fight though, extending the best-of-three match to the limit (2-1).

Coach Trent Willett said the match was extremely exciting, with the final game decided by two points, ending 23-21.

With the win, Park Street secured a trip to OFSAA.

GHS cross-town rivals BMLSS was the other OFSAA-bound team.

Willett added that his other mixed doubles team of Katie Sellon and Dylan Sontag played some excellent matches through the course of the day.

They won their first match against a strong team, lost the second to the same Park Street team that went to OFSAA, then won their third match against Innisdale. They lost their fourth and final match to another Park Street entry.

This was a year of firsts for the two mixed doubles teams of Gravenhurst.

Last year Barrington-Little played singles and competed in GBSSA as a junior, while Irvine played on a men’s doubles team and competed in GBSSA.

First-year team Sellon and Sontag improved dramatically over the year, Willett said. They played in an extremely exciting match at the Muskoka-Parry Sound (MPS) championships to make it to GBSSA. They defeated a very strong team from Parry Sound after losing the first game and being behind in the second match.

Both mixed doubles teams said they felt they did not play up to their potential at GBSSA.

However, Irvine and Barrington-Little said they were quite happy with the third-place finish.

Sontag and Sellon felt good about their performance in their first year together.

Senior singles player Kyle Appleton finished fourth and missed GBSSA by one spot at MPS.

He lost his first match of the day, but played hard and stuck with it to win a few matches before being eliminated in the B side of the tournament draw, Willett said.

The GHS coaching staff said they are very happy with the season they had this year and would like to thank all the players for their effort and great sportsmanship.

“It was definitely a great team to be a part of and I hope to be a part of it again next year,” Willett said.

With files from Trent Willett