A total of six volleyball tournaments took place throughout the area last weekend, crowning various Zone winners at different levels of play. The following are a few highlights from some impressive performances of St. Paul Athletics Association teams at Zones.
Girls 3A Zones
The St. Paul Regional High School Sr. Girls volleyball team ended up taking home the North East Zone banner after a tournament in Fort McMurray last weekend.
“We knew that as long as we performed the way we could, we thought we had a decent shot at being the representatives of the North East going into Provincials,” said coach Hank Smid. “We went in their on Friday for our first match and played the home team in front of a big crowd, a very energetic crowd, and it was a lot of fun.”
The team went undefeated through round robin play, and after a successful playoff round and semi-final match, they earned themselves a matchup with Lloydminster’s Holy Rosary in the final.
“We were attacking very strong. We have multiple players who are very strong at the attack, and that was a little intimidating for some of our opponents,” Smid said. “Our defence was fairly solid, and we always seem to get points on our serves.”
A successful final match earned the girls the banner, as well as a berth in the provincial tournament in Cochrane.
“The girls are excited. This is the fourth year in a row that we’re going to Provincials,” Smid said. “We’re excited about the competition in Cochrane, and also looking forward to just being a part of the whole event itself.”
Boys 3A Zones
The Regional boys, fresh off their impressive performance at the SPAA Finals, also took a run at winning another banner over the weekend.
Regional finished second after the round robin portion of the event, losing only to Westwood High School out of Fort McMurray, the tournament’s host. Regional won their semi-final match, only to come up against Westwood again in the final.
The championship battle lasted three sets, with the Regional boys ultimately coming up short.
“That final game was incredible volleyball,” said Regional coach Alex Bernier.
Girls 2A Zones
F.G. Miller will be hosting the 2A Girls Provincial tournament from Nov. 20-22 in Elk Point, earning them an automatic bid to compete in the tournament.
Boys 2A Zones
The Mallaig boys’ team opted to move up to the 2A division for Zones this year, a decision that paid off in the form of a new banner to hang in the school’s gym. The team was hoping to bounce back from a tough semi-final loss at the SPAA tournament, and they did.
“The thing with volleyball, it is just such an up and down game. Sometimes it all goes in your favour, and other days you just don’t have the cards. SPAA was something where we just didn’t have the cards that day,” said coach Brad Tillapaugh. “We had a meeting after SPAA, and we discussed with the boys that this was what we’ve been working for all year, and this is going to decide whether we get a longer season or we’re done and we go home. The boys obviously didn’t want to just go home.”
The boys travelled to Elk Point for the tournament, which took place at F.G. Miller. Mallaig ended up in first place after the round robin portion of the tournament, and met up with Assumption High School from Cold Lake in the final.
“It was pretty intense,” Tillapaugh said of the final match. “It went into three sets. They beat us the first set, and we beat them the second and the third one.”
According to Tillapaugh, it was a full team effort that awarded them the banner at the end of the day.
“Every tiny little thing that we talked about needing to do, we did it,” he said. “We talked, we hit the ball, and our passing was perfect. The boys were just really smart with the decisions they were making when we had the ball.”
The win also earned the team a spot in the provincial finals, which will take place next weekend at Assumption High School.
“If we continue playing like we did at Zones, and we keep that hunger going, I think we’ll do OK,” Tillapaugh said of the team’s next challenge. “We just need to keep in mind that we are playing against quite a few schools who are, possibly, double our size. The boys are not worried about anything. They have their goals set, and we’re just looking to play our game.”
1A Zones
The girls from Mallaig were also hoping to be double banner winners last weekend after taking home the SPAA crown.
They travelled to St. Jerome’s High School in Vermilion for the Zone tournament, and made it all the way to the final match. They met up with the host school in the championship, a contest that took the full three sets to be decided. The girls ended up falling short in that last game, earning them a silver medal on the day.
Two Hills School got the bronze medal in the 1A boys category.
