The Edwin Parr Composite (EPC) senior girls volleyball team’s goal heading into the 3A zones Nov. 19-20 may have been to crack the top four, but despite coming up just short of their goal, the girls’ performance was still nothing less than memorable.
“The girls played incredible at zones. It was an awesome weekend,” exclaimed Glenda Gray, head coach of the Angels.
Heading into zones ranked number seven out of 10 teams, the Angels surprised their competition heading into their final action on Nov. 20.
“On the Saturday morning, the coaches of the other teams were saying how Athabasca kind of came out of nowhere,” explained Gray.
In their first match-up of the weekend, the Angels had the very tough task of taking on the host team from Barrhead and the history of great volleyball teams Barrhead has produced in the past.
“Barrhead has won zones the past five years, at least,” said Gray.
Ranked number two, Barrhead was favoured heading into their game against Athabasca, but the Angels didn’t let that bother them as they were able to pull off the big upset to start zones.
It was also the first time Gray, as head coach, has had the pleasure of beating Barrhead.
“The girls were all phoning home afterwards. We could have came home after that win,” joked Gray. “It was an incredible way to start the weekend.”
The Angels continued their strong play in the somewhat surprisingly tight and competitive zones, which featured 10 3A teams from across the region.
After defeating Barrhead, the girls beat Morinville, fell to Edson and ended the round-robin portion of zones with a win against Onoway. Their 3-1 round robin record put the Angels in a three-way tie for first place.
The Angels ended up as the third seed in their pool because of tie-breaking procedures and ended up crossing over to face St. Thomas Aquainas from Spruce Grove, the second-place team from the other pool.
In an epic match that went to a third deciding set, the Angels fell by two points. EPC won the first set 25-23, lost by the same score in the second and fell 16-14 in the deciding set.
Despite the heartbreaking loss, it was a good way to end the season, said Gray.
“It was the most perfect game to go out on, because the girls played phenomenal. It was the game where every part of the girls’ game peaked at the right time,” she exclaimed.
In the end, Athabasca finished within two points of their fourth-place goal, but with such close wins and losses throughout the weekend, who knows how high the Angels could have finished.
Taking in everything that has happened, the season was a big success for the 2010 Angels.
“As far as their plays and everything the girls worked on all year, it all came together at the end. The girls were very excited at the end and that made me so proud as the coach,” said Gray.
In her three years as head coach, this year’s performance at zones was the best she has been a part of, which paints a bright future for Angels for years to come. The team will lose three Grade 12 starters from this year, but with improvement from the younger players and the promise the junior varsity girls showed this season, there will be plenty of talent to pick from for next year.
“Knowing there is a lot of girls to choose from this year’s group and the juniors is pretty exciting. Hopefully we can crack the top four next year,” said Gray.
The biggest strengths of this year’s Angels team was their willingness to try new attacking strategies in any situation that was presented to them throughout the year, and being able to gradually improve in their team communication throughout the fast-moving season.
“I encouraged them to keep on swinging and not to give free balls, and they did that even in the most pressure situations, compared to other teams who played conservative in the same situations.
“When they had a little bit of success trying new things, they were really excited, so they continued to try more and more new methods and that was good for their confidence levels,” explained Gray.
She said there were no shortage of memories and successes along the way.
“The girls were all very enjoyable to teach. It’s like being a proud mother of all these young girls, because they did everything I asked of them, and being able to watch all of their dedication pay off is the best part of being a coach,” said Gray.
