Injuries prove difficult for Battlefords teams in volleyball tourney

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“They finished off the game really well, despite the difficult situation,” Vikings head coach Paul Sarsons said following the tournament. “Despite the other team having more momentum, the boys were able to kind of stem the flow.”

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In his first full season as head coach, Sarsons helped the team finish fourth at regionals last year, falling to a very strong Meadow Lake team.

That team was older but Sarsons said this team is more impressive.

“This year we have more flexibility in more of our players as well as a much younger team,” Sarsons said. “We’re actually positioned much better and are performing better this year than we did in previous years.”

Regionals in Prince Albert are two weeks away, and Ali likely won’t be healthy in time to return to help his team.

That sets the Vikings up well to be a surprising underdog.

“We have all the pieces in place for a good push at regionals,” Sarsons said. “We have the guys who are supportive of each other. With a new setter coming in who’s in Grade 9, it will present a fairly large hurdle to overcome but we can definitely be playing a spoiler role at the regional tournament.”

The JP II Crusaders, who also took part in the tournament this past weekend, finishing tenth, will also be heading to regionals in two weeks. They boast an even younger team, with just one Grade 12 and one Grade 11.

“Our biggest thing was our unforced errors that we made and that’s something we definitely have to work on,” Crusaders head coach Vic Stynsky said. “We had way too many serving errors, which is just points being given to the other team.”

Last season the team was a complete reversal of this year’s Crusaders squad, as it carried nine Grade 12 students. Injuries would ultimately hamper the team late in the season as players were close to qualifying for provincials, but didn’t make the cut.

Now, the mindset heading to regionals is a completely different one. This year, it’s an opportunity to learn and grow for next season.

“We’ll see some really strong teams there with the two Prince Albert teams and some other teams,” Stynsky said. “That experience, not only [of] playing against them, but also watching, is priceless. We’ll be able to work on that and build on that for next year, too.”

Meadow Lake ultimately won gold at the tournament over the weekend, defeating Wilkie in three sets in the final. Shaunavon finished third.

Sarsons said one thing that stood out to him this past weekend was the level of play from all teams.

“The quality of volleyball in the area is beginning to grow,” Sarsons said. “It was a very competitive tournament despite there being teams from very small schools up to very large schools, which is very promising for the sport.”

Nathan Kanter is battlefordsNOW’s sports reporter and voice of the Battlefords North Stars. He can be reached at Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca or tweet him @NathanKanter11