R.F. Staples senior boys volleyball teams suffered a season-ending defeat at the 3A zone championship.
Hosted in Westlock on Saturday, the T-Birds couldn’t overcome Athabasca in the quarterfinals.
Despite the loss, coach Steve McKenna says the match was the team’s best showing of the tournament.
“Their quarterfinal match was good,” he said. “It was the best they played all weekend.
“They pushed Athabasca — Athabasca was the third-ranked team and ultimately the boys were really felt they could have won it and they should have won.
“Serving was the difference in that game. Serving just kind of cost us.”
Through the round robin the T-Birds were winless, going down in straight sets to Morinville Community High School 25-11, 25-18, while pushing Hilltop High School from Whitecourt to three, 25-21, 20-25, 10-15.
“Ultimately we should have beat them [Hilltop],” McKenna said. “I don’t think they really pushed us, I think it was just mental mistakes that ultimately cost us the sets.”
Hosting the championship on their home courts gave the team a real lift said McKenna.
“I think they enjoyed playing in front of the home crowd,” he said. “They talked about that it was nice seeing a lot of people cheering them on, so that had them pretty excited.”
Overall it’s been an up and down season for the team.
They picked up a few consolation final wins in tournament play, but didn’t often find themselves on the good side of ledger after the preliminary rounds.
“We’ve won come consolations, but not won any tournaments,” McKenna said. “Overall there was some improvements, but consistency was our killer this year.”
Original planned for two days, the tournament was trimmed to one.
In the end Barrhead and Morinville battled for the zone title, with Barrhead coming out on top.
“It was fantastic volleyball,” McKenna said. “Everybody had the chance to win but Morinville, Barrhead and Athabasca were the top dogs.”
St. Mary School’s senior boys volleyball team claimed bronze at the 1A zone championships held in Thorhild on Saturday, Nov. 21.
Despite dropping all their pool games in close matchups, the team swept the quarterfinals but dropped the penultimate game before bouncing back for third overall.
“The tournament was kind of a microcosm of our season,” said coach Vance Nakonechny.
“We had times were we played very well but times where we just fell short.”
Downing hosts Thorhild Central School, 25-15, 25-18, was a good consolation for a team that had hopes of making it to provincials.
“To be honest, both teams were a little flat,” Nakonechny said. “The bronze medal is always a tough one to play because you’ve kind of lost out on your goal.
“I’m very proud of our senior players, our Grade 12 guys pulled us through that game. It was their last game in high school volleyball and it was nice to send them off with the victory.
In the semifinal the Sharks lost to Covenant Canadian Reformed School (CCRS) from Neerlandia 25-20 and 25-21. The team had already played CCRS in the round-robin and lost out by two points in the third set.
“We’ve been very close with them all season,” Nakonechny said.
A major highlight for the team came in their quarterfinal game against Grand Trunk High School from Evansburg. Down by 11 in the first, the Sharks put up 13 unanswered points to claim the set 26-24.
Earlier in the round robin the Sharks were unable to notch up a win, despite pushing both their games to three sets.
“When you’re one a two points apart, the difference between winning and losing is very small.”
While many teams would have been crushed by such close losses, the Sharks bounced back. Yet it wasn’t to be and the team had to be content with bronze.
“They didn’t get down on themselves,” he said. “Both the round robin games were very close matches. They could have felt sorry for themselves but they pushed through and did show a lot of composure.
“They’ve been a great bunch of guys to coach, always very positive. They don’t sit around felling sorry for themselves.”
Taking the bronze was a highlight for the team’s three Grade 12 players who have played key leadership roles for younger players and carried on an ethic set in previous years.
Tyler Botham, Justin Biddiscombe and Austin Watamaniuk have all spiked their final ball for St. Mary, but Nakonechny says their impact on the team will be lasting.
