It was a medal podium weekend for area volleyball team, as the senior girls from Boyle School finished second at the 1A North Central Zone Volleyball Tournament in Hinton Nov. 20-21, while Grassland School’s senior girls came home with bronze.
The Huskies played some of their best volleyball over the weekend losing the championship match to Living Water from Spruce Grove — the No. 1 ranked school in the zone.
The Huskies had a great beginning to their tournament, finishing at the top of their pool. They won all three matches in straight sets, giving them a bye into the semifinals.
“They were on fire.” said coach Sheri Bencharsky.
“They wanted it. They were really just gunning for winning this weekend, so it was nice to see that desire and passion in them to push through and win.”
The Huskies faced their local rivals from Grassland to see who was moving onto the gold medal match. The Huskies beat Grassland in two sets, 25-19 and 25-19, in one of their best played games of the tourney.
“They were positive, energetic and they passed like they’ve never passed before,” she said.
“It was amazing how well they played. They were pretty excited (going into the finals). It was definitely the match that finally gave them the chance to go to provincials, but that never did end up happening. The anxiety of, ‘If we win this we get to go to provincials.’ This group has never been to provincials and that’s a really big thing. I definitely think nerves was a part of it.”
The Huskies battled hard in the first set of the final, but lost 25-20. Facing elimination, the team came out stronger in the second set, swapping the score of the previous game and winning 25-20.
“In the third game, they just didn’t come out with quite enough energy so it ended up being 4-15,” said Bencharsky. “It wasn’t as good as it should have been, that’s for sure. We had five of our Grade 12s playing their last game. It was very emotional and when they started losing it kind of sunk in. I think they started to have a tough time with it.”
Although they missed their opportunity to play in provincials, Bencharsky couldn’t be any prouder of her squad.
“They improved so much throughout the year and they learned so much,” she said.
“Overall it was a great season. We started with a sliver and we ended with a silver. I’m happy with that.”
The Grassland Cougars took home the bronze medal in excellent fashion beating Breton High School handily in straight sets.
“It was like 25-10 and 25-11 … something like that. We tuned them in pretty good,” said Cougars coach Doug Webster.
“(Breton) is a bigger team, but they’re not as aggressive. So, sometimes those are tougher games to play, because you get more free balls, but never know where they are going.
“The bronze medal match is the toughest to win out of any game, because it’s the game that nobody wants to play. Both teams that are in it have lost the (semifinal). They were tired and discouraged, but (the Cougars) sucked it up and won.”
The Cougars had a very competitive start to their tournament, winning two out of their three round robin games. This put them in second place in their pool. After defeating Holy Trinity in two straight sets, the Cougars were unable to continue their success during their semifinal match against Boyle School.
“The girls were really disappointed (after the Boyle game), that was our chance to get to the final,” he said. “We’ve beaten Boyle before during this year, but (Boyle) played really good. I told the girls, ‘We have to give them credit.’ They rose to the occasion and we just didn’t have our ‘A’ game. When you’re in a tournament like zones and you have four teams with a legitimate shot at winning, it’s the team that rises to the occasion that wins.”
After the way the team played throughout the entire tournament, Webster is looking to next year with high hopes.
“In our final meeting, I said to the girls, ‘Our goal next year is to win zones,’” he said.
“That’s our goal and we have to set that goal this year. That way we can look forward to it for next year.”
