The Westlock T-Birds scored a silver medal after a hard-fought final match that went right down to the wire.
The girls faced the St. Dominic Huskies from Rocky Mountain House in the final match of their home tournament, and despite easily beating the team in the round-robin, lost the final two straight.
“We were down big at the start of that second set and came back. We had them; I thought we were going to go to three,” coach Keith Szautner said.
While a win is always the goal, and many of the girls were visibly disappointed by the two-set loss, he said the level of competition was excellent.
“I’m very proud of our girls. I think we did very well with what we have,” he said.
“I told them that winning’s big deal but it’s not all about winning, it’s about competing. We competed great this weekend.”
Szautner said the silver medal was especially impressive given some of the adversity the team had faced over the past week.
There was a bit of a struggle early in the week with some “team adversity,” and one of the Grade 12 starting players was in the hospital with an allergic reaction for the tournament so she couldn’t play.
“The girls stepped up and did a nice job,” he said. “We played a great semi against Edson and we were down in that third set, and never quit.”
Throughout the round robin portion of the event, the girls played exceptionally well. They lost just four matches, and by no more than a four-point margin.
“We had some girls playing a lot of minutes and they did a great job,” he said. “I was just really proud of how they came together as a team, worked together, and just never quit.”
That level of perseverance, Szautner said, has proven to be this team’s strongest characteristic throughout the season. The girls’ dedication has shown itself in the fact they consistently improve week after week.
“That’s a great sign,” he said. “We’re just more consistent, we’re putting some more balls away and have a little more confidence; all those kind of things.”
The girls have a tourney this weekend in Camrose, then have a week off before the zone championships in Barrhead Nov. 18-19.
Szautner said he likes the team’s chances at zones, assuming past performance is an indication of future potential.
“I think we’ve got a good chance. We’ll probably go in ranked second in our zone of 10 teams. We get to beat Barrhead this year, but there are some other very good teams,” he said. “If we don’t play our best, there are many teams in our zone that can beat us. But if we play our best, when it matters, I like our chances.”
