The R.F. Staples senior girls' volleyball team were unable to advance past the round robin of the 3A Provincial Championships.
The Alberta Schools Athletic Association (ASAA) provincials ran from Wednesday to Saturday at the Saville Centre in Edmonton.
Notably, this year marked the 50th anniversary of the provincial championship.
The T-Birds qualified for the provincial championship by winning the Zone Championship in Drayton Valley on Nov. 23, downing the Barrhead Gryphons in three sets.
Unfortunately, the R.F. Staples senior girls couldn't duplicate their success at the provincial championship, though coach Keith Szautner says the girls did put in a solid performance at the tournament.
"I don't think the record shows how hard we played. We actually played some really good volleyball throughout the weekend,” he said.
"I'm disappointed with our record, but I'm not disappointed with our effort.”
Over the five matches they played, the T-Birds had their best results against Sylvan Lake (25-21, 21-25, 7-15), Monsignor McCoy High School from Medicine Hat (25-22, 19-25, 16-18) and St. Paul Regional High School (21-25, 25-17, 10-15). They lost out in two sets versus Ardrossan and Beaverlodge Regional High School.
Szautner said he felt the girls could have improved their record to 1-1 on the first day of play and 2-1 on Day 2.
"We were not far away from being 3-2 instead of 0-5,” he said, noting the other teams at provincials definitely knew how to push back when it mattered.
Although they were unable to advance to the playoffs, Szautner said he reminded the girls afterwards that they were able to advance to the tournament by winning zones in the first place.
"Like I told the girls after ... we've got a banner hanging up in our gym,” he said. "We definitely showed we deserved to be there.”
The provincial championship officially marks the end of the R.F. Staples team's season.
Szautner said they will be losing half of their roster to graduation this year — and all five Grade 12 players were starting players too — so next year will be a bit of a building year.
"That'll be a big loss, but we definitely have some solid girls (on the team),” he indicated.
