Senior Vikings volleyball teams reach podium at home tourney

“They had a rough second match on Friday, but they steadily improved throughout the tournament,” Sarsons said. “They did a very good job of [working on] some of the skills that they were struggling with and they got much better with their efficiency throughout the weekend.”

One thing the senior boys team has been focusing on is service efficiency.

Sarsons has been asking the team to serve aggressively to try to put pressure on the opposition. While it means the current service percentage is sitting around just 50-60 per cent, Sarons has seen improvement.

“As the season has gone on, our efficiency has risen in our difficult serving,” he said. “When [we serve aggressively], we put pressure on them and it causes a lot of havoc for their offence. They can’t get their big swingers into good positions, which allows us to have an easier block and an easier attack defence.

“Going into the regional tournament, we’ll see the boys be a little more conservative with their serving to try to maximize our efficiency.”

The senior girls Vikings, meanwhile, let one get away, so to speak.

They defeated Melfort fairly easily in the round robin 25-14, 25-10, thanks to superb serving. But in a rematch against them in the semifinal, they lost, which sent them to a bronze medal game against John Paul II.

“They showed up and played really well and we didn’t,” senior girls coach Jana Friedenstab said of the semifinal loss to Melfort. “Our passing and our defence wasn’t the best. Defence plays an important role for sure.”

The Vikings won that third-place game against their cross-town rival in straight sets.

Friedenstab said considering how young the girls team is, the results are certainly positive.

“We’re 80 per cent Grade 10s so a lot of the time, there is one Grade 12 and five Grade 10s on the floor,” she said. “They’re mostly my club team that I’ve had for about three or four years. They’re pretty talented kids. We’re playing very well against top 5A schools with a young team so I’m pretty happy with what they’re doing.”

Four of the six teams at the tournament on the girls side were 5A schools. A fifth, Lloydminster (who beat Melfort in the finals), is also 5A but they compete in Alberta’s provincials.

Familiarity is one thing that has allowed the senior Vikings to keep pace with those other large schools, according to Friedenstab.

“They communicate really well with each other,” she said. “They’ve known each other for quite a long time now. We have some really big hitters on offence. We’re a very tough serving team and that works really well for us.”

Both the boys and girls senior teams will head to Prince Albert for regionals on the weekend of Nov. 10.

Before then, the starters from the senior boys team will take part in a prep regional tournament this coming weekend in P.A., while the Grade 9s and 10s host a small mini-tournament with Hafford, Edam, and Cut Knife.

“There’s been a definite progression throughout the season,” Sarsons added. “Going into this prep tournament at St. Mary this upcoming weekend, we should be able to work on the last few things to really get us ready for the regional tournament.”

For the girls, only two teams out of eight will qualify for provincials from regionals, so Friendstab knows it won’t be easy.

“Two of the [eight] are the P.A. teams, which are usually pretty strong and since Melfort is hosting provincials, they only will take the top-2. It’ll be pretty tough, but I have hope,” she said. “Anything can happen on any given day. We’ve played St. Mary’s and we’ve played Carlton and we’ve come really close. You never know.”

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @NathanKanter11

by Nathan Kanter

Senior Vikings volleyball teams reach podium at home tourney

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