The JPII senior girls volleyball team pictured here with their tournament-winning plaque in their home gym. (Facebook/John Paul II Collegiate)

By Martin Martinson

Junior and Senior Volleyball

Crusaders girls win tandem gold at weekend tournaments

Sep 19, 2023 | 2:58 PM

It was a big weekend for the John Paul II Collegiate volleyball program, as both the senior and junior girls Crusaders took home gold medals in tournament action.

The senior girls won gold at their home tournament at the high school, while the junior girls took top prize on the road in Wilkie.

Senior girls

Head coach of the senior girls team, Quinn Baynham described an electric atmosphere in the home gym, to get the weekend underway.

“We started off with our first game in front of the school, with a slideshow, pump-up music, the SRC encouraging the crowd to cheer and sing, [and] an announcer announcing our roster and the guest team’s roster,” she said. “It started off really fun. I think a lot of the girls were very happy that they were able to play and win in front of their friends and family.”

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The senior Crusaders topped the NBCHS B team, Spiritwood, Meadow Lake’s B Team, and Maidstone in straight sets through round robin play, to punch their ticket to the playoff rounds.

There, the team bested Spiritwood again in the semis, and NBCHS B team in the finals (25-13 and 25-10) to claim the gold.

Now having won two straight tournaments to open the season, Baynham said it’s been a good opportunity to see where the girls are at and try them in some different situations.

“These past two weekends allowed us the opportunity to focus on our individual strengths, successes, and learning moments,” she said. “Communication has been a big factor in our team’s success [and] as we head into the more competitive weekends, we will be turning our focus towards teamwork and increasing our intensity.”

Next up for the senior girls will be a tournament at Prince Albert’s St. Mary’s next weekend.

Junior girls

The weekend tournament in Wilkie marked the first of the season for the junior girls’ Crusaders, who – much like the seniors last weekend – hit the ground running with a gold medal performance in Wilkie.

Playing three round robin games against Macklin, Unity, and the Wilkie B Team, the Crusaders’ girls beat all three in straight sets to advance to the playoff rounds, where they continued to roll with wins over Macklin, Medstead in the semis, and the hosts from Wilkie in the finals to claim the gold.

The JPII junior girls Crusaders with their gold medals from the weekend. (Facebook/John Paul II Collegiate)

Head coach of the junior girls, Brent Puff said the team did well to come out strong and build on their momentum as the tournament went along.

“Junior’s a serving game and we took care of our serves so good things happened,” he said. “We’ve got a pretty experienced team, and we played really well, so that was good to see.”

He said looking ahead to their next tournament, across town at NBCHS this coming weekend, the focus is now about continuing to improve as the season progresses, as other teams gain their footing to do so as well.

“Unity’s going to get really good fast, Wilkie’s going to get good really fast, they’ve got good coaching and they always improve a lot from the beginning of the year so we just have to keep improving ourselves,” he said.

Next weekend’s tournament at NBCHS will run Friday and Saturday, Sept. 22-23.

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Martin.Martinson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @MartyMartyPxP1