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JV T-Birds spike gold at home

There’s nothing quite like dominating the competition on your home court, but that’s exactly what the R.F Staples junior varsity girls did last weekend as they hosted the R.F. Staples JV Invitational last weekend.
RF JV gold
The R.F. Staples junior varsity girls team came away from the R.F. Staples JV Invitational tournament Oct. 18-19 with a gold medal. The team, back row, L-R, consists of coach Danielle Snyder, Elora Rigney, Paige Snyder, Rebecca Felske, Kate Grimmeyer and Sierra Tymkow. In the front row, L-R, is Avery Schiller, Jade Isaac, Kinzee Stadnyk, Rebecca Letts and Denise Greanya.

There’s nothing quite like dominating the competition on your home court, but that’s exactly what the R.F Staples junior varsity girls did last weekend as they hosted the R.F. Staples JV Invitational last weekend.

The T-Birds welcomed nine other girls teams from across the region, including the St. Mary Sharks Oct. 18-19 and made short work of each one they played, earning the gold medal and outshining each one they played over the course of the weekend.

“We did really well,” said coach Danielle Snyder. “We were able to pull off the gold in the final.”

The team obviously went undefeated in the round robin portion of the tournament, finishing first in Pool ‘A’ by defeating John Maland High from Devon in two sets, 25-16 and 25-19; Holy Redeemer High from Edson in three sets, 25-15, 22-25 and 15-2; the Gerard Redmond Catholic senior team, from Hinton, 25-17 and 25-21; and finally the rival St. Mary Sharks 25-23 and 25-23 to make their way into the Saturday afternoon playoffs, where they continued their winning ways.

The girls stayed sharp defeating the Gerard Redmond Catholic JV squad in the semifinal, before taking on Thorhild Central School in the final and coming away with the shiny, gold medals for their efforts.

“We had a good weekend and the girls played well. We had a few tough little moments, but managed to pull it out and deserved to get the gold,” said Snyder.

It’s been an up-and-down season for the girls, but overall a very positive experience, she added.

“We started off slow for the season, but then we got second in Barrhead, where we had actually lost to Thorhild in the final in that one. Then we went to a Whitecourt senior high tournament, and we’re JV. It was a great experience for us,” said Snyder, adding some recent injuries to the roster have required her to shake up some of the positions, but the team has adjusted well.

The girls will play two more tournaments to finish off the season, including the annual Joe Nestorovich Memorial Tournament, hosted by the St. Mary Sharks senior teams at the Rotary Spirit Centre next weekend, then in November it’s off to zones.

“The girls have made great progress and they’re learning and have been playing really well,” said Snyder. “They’re pretty happy with the gold.”

Senior T-Birds

As their JV counterparts were dominating at home, the senior boys and girls T-Birds were on the road in St. Albert and Morinville for the Lions Western Canadian Challenge Volleyball Tournament Oct. 18-19, but neither was quite as successful as the JV girls back home.

The round robin portion of the tournament was played in St. Albert Friday and the girls teams moved on to Morinville Saturday for the playoffs.

The senior boys took on St. Albert Catholic, Barrhead Composite, Bowness High school out of Calgary, Peace Wapiti Academy from Grande Prairie and Beaverlodge Regional High in the round robin, collecting a 5-1 record with nine set wins and three losses and earning first in their pool.

“We finished first in our pool with our win against Barrhead, which gave us a bye into the semifinal,” said coach Kyle Beattie.

The team then dropped the semi to St. Albert Catholic in three sets, 25-15, 23-25 and 13-15, sending them home for the weekend.

The senior girls had an even harder time with their opponents, finishing fifth of six in their pool after the round robin.

“We won our match against Barrhead in the round robin,” said coach Jessica Carlyon. “It was nice to see another team from our pool, but Friday was a tough day. We couldn’t pull the skills together for long enough to get a lead.”

While the team was playing catch-up for most of the weekend, a couple matches were quite close, she added. Saturday was a whole different day with a whole different team.

Carlyon said she will be focussing on defense and hustle as the girls head into practice this week in preparation for an Edmonton tournament next weekend at Louis St. Laurent, followed by another tournament the weekend after in Camrose.

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