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JPII Senior Girl's Volleyball

Crusader girl’s volleyball start off season with gold in Nipawin

Sep 10, 2024 | 5:15 PM

The John Paul II Collegiate senior girl’s volleyball team got their season off on the right foot, after going undefeated this past weekend in Nipawin.

The Crusaders played eight games, which started with six round-robin games followed by one playoff game and then the finals.

One of the closer round robin games was against the defending provincial champions, Nipawin, who the Crusaders lost to last season in the provincial finals. The final score of the game was 25-22 in favour of John Paul II.

Head Coach of the Crusaders, Quinn Baynham said that they were excited to beat Nipawin in the provincial rematch, but it wasn’t as satisfactory as it could’ve been as Nipawin was still in the tryout stage of their team.

“This was their tryout, so they didn’t have an A and B team. They mixed their A and B players into two different teams. So even though they are technically in our seeding for provincials, we did not see their full strength…but we are looking forward to it (playing Nipawin) in the near future.”

The Crusaders advanced to the semi-finals, which was a best of three series against Macklin. The Crusaders swept it, winning the first game 25-16 and the second game 25-17 to advance to the finals.

In the finals, the Crusaders took on Raymore in a best of three series and continued their success for an undefeated weekend, winning the first game 25-12 and the second game 25-20 to capture the gold

Baynham acknowledged this was a great start and was encouraging for the rest of the season but also a good learning weekend for the team.

“For all 12 girls that came to the tournament to play and to get to see the court and to kind of learn a little bit, this was a good learning weekend… watching the girls start off strong. It was very encouraging because a lot of them did club over the summer or they were doing camps and a lot of them looked like they didn’t even skip a beat. We just hopped right in and they were flowing and gelling together…”

Baynham also mentioned the importance of having younger talent on the team this season to continue with success in the years to come, along with getting ready for hosting provincial’s next season.

“We had eight (players returning) and then we took on some grade 10s this year hoping to develop them for future years because we’re also hosting provincials next year. So, we are not only planning for this year, but next.”

The team will be in Prince Albert this weekend to play in a tournament at Carlton Comprehensive High School.

Austin.mattes@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter/X: @AustinMatttes