MHSAA 2021 Junior Varsity Volleyball Championships

BOSTON PIZZA 2021 MHSAA JUNIOR VARSITY VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS

Awards

MHSAA JV 2019 A/AA VOLLEYBALL AWARDS

MHSAA JV 2019 AAA VOLLEYBALL AWARDS

MHSAA JV 2021 AAAA VARSITY VOLLEYBALL AWARDS

Participants

Niverville Junior Varsity Girls Win Provincials

Dec 03, 2021 @ 1:11pm

Jennifer Lavinjlavin@nivervillecitizen.com

Share: Share TweetThe JV Niverville Panthers, who won this year’s Provincials. Graeme Buys

Niverville High School’s Junior Varsity Girls volleyball team has completed an undefeated season with a win at this year’s Provincials.

Coach Graeme Buys says that the season was an exciting one, full of close calls and ups and downs in the quality of play. The Niverville Panthers were ranked number two behind the first-ranked Westgate Wings throughout the season and eventually met for one last showdown at Provincials.

At one point in the first set of the finals, Niverville was down 9–2, but they rallied and won a close game. They lost the second set badly, however, bringing the fate of the season to rest on one final set.

The last set in volleyball normally only goes to 15 points. To win, a team has to be ahead by two points, which can result in extending the set.

At one point, Niverville was up 14–11. Buys says that they thought they had the game in the bag.

But the Wings rallied and the game became a nail-biter.

In the end, the Panthers defeated the Wings 17–15.

The JV team is made up of Grades Nine and Ten girls, but last year there was no competitive volleyball due to COVID-19. The result was that this year’s Grade Nine girls hadn’t played any volleyball since their Grade Seven year.

Buys says that despite this, they did an amazing job stepping into the team and meeting the standards needed to excel at the Junior Varsity level.

“I was so encouraged by the development throughout the season of those who didn’t get to play as often,” says Buys. “I felt so impressed with their hard work and improvement. And some became regular contributors on the court by the end of the season despite missing an entire year of play.”

Buys says that his team was led by three key players: Anika Buys, Eva Davis, and Isabelle Voth. All three young women are top players at this level.

Voth and Davis were both named tournament all-stars and Anika Buys was named Most Valuable Player.

Coach Buys says that all three of these titles were well deserved, but that any of the three could have been named MVP as their work was equally stellar.

He adds that Voth, the team’s only setter, was plagued by injuries and deserves extra credit for her hard work. She played with her arm and hand taped up, taking ibuprofen to get through the games.

Buys stresses how proud he is of all the girls.

“Volleyball is not an individual sport,” he says. “So without the contributions by all the team members, this wouldn’t have been possible.”

Hawks soar to provincial title

Junior varsity boys volleyball team wins AAAA championship

• By: Sheldon Birnie

Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute is home to another provincial championship banner, thanks to the junior varsity boys volleyball team.

“This group is special,” said Tanner Owens, who was in his first year as head coach of the team. “We weren’t doing this because we wanted to win. We did this to honour the legacy that Brian Plett has created at MBCI.”

Undefeated in 10 league games in the Kilcona Peguis Athletic Conference, MBCI’s junior varsity boys squad beat Miles Macdonell Collegiate in the KPAC semifinal, then beat Garden City in three straight sets to win the division title and head into the AAAA provincial as the top ranked junior varsity team.

“In the fall, (the team) looked like kids who hadn’t played in a year and a half,” Owens admitted. “These kids had very basic volleyball knowledge, some had no experience. I had a few kids who’d never played before who actually contributed in the end.”

What the team lacked in experience it made up for in determination.

“We always had the attitude to play for each and support one another, and alternately keep ourselves in check,” Owens said. “A lot of these guys didn’t think we’d be top 10 in the province. But … we found we could be one of the stronger teams if we worked hard and continued to be disciplined.”

An early game against divisional rival Garden City set the bar for Owens on what the team could achieve if they put their collective minds to it.

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“We were down 24-17 and we came back and won 26-24,” Owens recalled. “That clicked to me that we could be a competitive team because of that morale. We don’t quit for balls, we play to the end. We never accepted defeat.” 

Northeast Winnipeg was well represented at the boys AAAA JV provincial tourney this year. Eighth ranked Miles Macdonell Collegiate joined the top ranked MBCI Hawks and No. 2 ranked River East Collegiate in the tournament. However, Daniel McIntyre beat Miles Mac 25-21, 14-25, 25-12, 25-22 in the preliminary round to end the Buckeyes’ championship dreams.

In the quarter-finals, MBCI beat Daniel McIntyre, while REC beat seventh ranked Steinbach on Nov. 26. In the semifinals, MBCI took on old foe Garden City, beating the Fighting Gophers in five sets, while REC lost to St. Paul’s to set up the championship match.

MBCI beat St. Paul’s 3-1 (25-18, 22-25, 25-21, 28-26) to win the provincial championship. 

“In the final, we were up 24-20 and they crawled back, and they even had two set points, but we fought back and got those points back,” Owens said. “We competed for every point, no matter the deficit.”

MBCI’s Miles Guenther-Hoorman was named tournament MVP, while Hawks’ Travis Schroeder and Sam Ross were named to the tournament all-star team, along with River East’s Yeb Kuentsler.