Celebrations will have to be kept to a minimum over the course of the next week as the U16 Lady Rhinos club volleyball team prepare themselves for the Open Western Nationals after battling hard to claim victory at the provincial championships earlier this month.
After enjoying a largely successful regular season, the girls traveled to Edmonton May 3 to test themselves against the best the province had to offer. Following a nervy display in round robin action, the girls rallied in the knockout stage, not losing a single set en-route to their second consecutive provincial title.
The team's head coach Troy Gratton said he was delighted, not only with the victory, but with the level of compete displayed from his girls throughout the tournament.
“I'm extremely happy with the performance of the team throughout the weekend,” Gratton said. “I felt as tournament progressed we were getting better and better and more and more consistent, which really was the key to victory.”
The girl's experienced a stumbling start to the tournament, dropping their opening game two sets to one to the Edmonton Yeti Blues before rebounding with a comprehensive two set victory over the Lacombe Thunder. That set up a tantalizing tie with the Edmonton Fog Force later that day to determine whether the team would finish first or third in their pool.
After losing the opening set, the girls pulled themselves back into the game with a close 25-23 second set victory before wrapping up first place with a 15-7 third set win.
Gratton said it was the energy his team displayed throughout that opening morning that inspired them to victory.
“Whether we were winning or losing, the team kept a really strong energy together. We lost the opening game against the Yeti's and we needed to bounce back in a big way to ensure (we progressed) and the girls did just that,” Gratton said.
In the first crossover match in the knockout stage of the tournament, the Rhinos easily dispatched of the MD of Foothills Peak two sets to zero and carried that form with them to the quarterfinals, where they beat the Wetaskiwin Chill Renegades, once again by a score of two sets to zero.
That set up a semi-final with the impressive Calgary Ace Spades. Determined not to let their nerves get the better of them, the Rhinos pushed through and recorded a third straight clean sweep victory, taking the first set 25-19 and the second set 25-14.
The gold medal game brought the Rhinos face to face with the heavily fancied Parkland Ravens, but, as they had done all weekend long, the girls came out ready to play and rocked the Ravens, claiming 25-20 and 25-22 first and second set victories to once again be named provincial champions.
Gratton said every member of the squad played their part in the team's victory, and commended them for what is an “unbelievable feat” in securing a second straight provincial title.
“In volleyball you can have one or two strong players, but if you don't have everyone working together you won't have much success,” Gratton said. “The real key to victory this weekend was that all the girls accepted the role they were given and really came together as a team to play to the best of their ability.”
Now, the girls will have a week to prepare themselves both physically and mentally before they head to Calgary to compete in the Open Western National championships. Gratton said although he wasn't expecting his team to challenge for the gold medal, he feels they are capable of pulling out a surprise or two.
“I think the girls really have to believe in themselves and head to Calgary prepared to compete. Of course, since this is going to be a national tournament we're going to be coming up against teams and players that are better than us, but sometimes, if you give it your all, you can beat teams like that,” Gratton said. “If the girls can keep their energy levels up and keep positive you never know what can happen.”
He added, “I don't have any expectations heading down there, but like I said, you just never know. We'll have fun and give it our best and see what that brings us.”
