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YSAA 2018 Volleyball Championships

November 25, 2018 by  
Filed under Provincial and Territorial News

2018 YSAA SENIOR SUPER VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS

 

GIRLS

BOYS

GOLD Porter Creek Rams F H Collins Warriors
SILVER F H Collins Warriors Vanier Crusaders
BRONZE Vanier Crusaders Porter Creek Rams
Antique Bronze Watson Lake Secondary School Bears Robert Service School Knights

Image title

Photo by John Tonin

UP AND AROUND – Rams player Kendra Peters (14) hits the ball around the block made by Warriors middle Emma Boyd (12) in the second set of their gold medal game. The Rams defeated the Warriors 2-0.

Rams down Warriors in straight sets

The gold and bronze medal games of the High School Volleyball Championships were held Saturday at Vanier.

By John Tonin on November 19, 2018

The gold and bronze medal games of the High School Volleyball Championships were held Saturday at Vanier. In girls action the Porter Creek Rams took out the F.H. Collins Warriors in a rematch of the Supervolley finals. The Rams, which defeated the Warriors 3-2 in the Supervolley, were able to dispatch the Warriors in two sets.

Early in the first set the Rams got off to the quicker start gaining an early 5-3 advantage, which they stretched to 12-7.

The Rams quick start could be attributed to their defence. Although their attacking started off slowly no ball hit their side of the court. This forced the Warriors into making mistakes on their swings.

Through the strength of their middles, the Warriors were able to claw their way back into the set making it 17-14. The Warriors picked up their defensive intensity and tied the set 21 all, as their block began to shut the door on the Rams attack.

The Rams were able to win the ball back and get two serving aces in a row to push ahead 23-21. The Warriors won the serve back and served it to the Rams’ libero Emiko Jones Kinuyeteramura, who passed a perfect ball to setter and tournament Most Valuable Player Sarah Hardie. Hardie put a high ball out to Kendra Peters who smashed the ball through the formidable block of the Warriors to give the Rams a commanding 24-22 lead.

The Warriors were able to win the ball back one more time, but missed their ensuing serve to give the Rams the set 25-23.

In the second set the Rams came out firing and were strong in all parts of the game.

They grabbed an early 11-5 lead, which grew to 16-10 on a serving run by Hardie.

The Warriors made a run at the end getting the game to 21-18, but the early deficit was too much for them to overcome. Peters stepped to the serving line at 23-19 and did not relinquish it. The Rams won the match 25-19.

The victory was bittersweet for Kinuyeteramura. The Rams team is made up mostly of seniors, and for some this would be their last time playing together.

“I’m feeling sad and happy, it’s our last game together,” said Kinuyeteramura. “I’m so proud of them. We are just so tight, if we make a mistake it’s whatever, we always love each other. One of our goals was to have a lot of fun; a lot of us are graduating, we wanted our last game to be something we could remember fondly.”

From the start of the season to the end of the season Kinuyeteramura attributes the team’s communication as the biggest difference, to lead them to further success.

“Communication. At the beginning of the season we had a hard time getting things together,” said Kinuyeteramura.

“We had all the skills but we couldn’t put it together. The more we played the more we meshed and we came out on top because we were able to talk about things and fix it.”

In the bronze medal game the Vanier Crusaders defeated the Watson Lake Secondary School Bears, in a tightly contested match. The Crusaders won in straight sets 2-0.


Image title

Photo by John Tonin

PAINTING THE LINE – Crusaders attacker Quinn Howard (11) crushes the ball between Warriors blocker Griffin Bisson (4) and the antenna, towards the waiting defender Manus Toews (14) in the first set of their gold medal game Saturday.

Warriors beat Crusaders 2-1, win gold

In the boys gold medal match the F.H. Collins Warriors defeated the Vanier Crusaders in a hard fought 2-1 win.

By John Tonin on November 19, 2018

In the boys gold medal match the F.H. Collins Warriors defeated the Vanier Crusaders in a hard fought 2-1 win.

The Crusaders jumped on the Warriors in the first set, taking a 10-4 lead, which they extended to 19-12 without much resistance. The Crusaders were firing on all cylinders getting contributions from all their attackers and backing it up with lights out defence.

Left-side attacker Quinn Howard was hitting every ball set to him with bad intentions as he led the way for the Crusader offence. The Warriors did not have an answer in the first set; it was all Vanier as they took the first 25-15.

The Warriors were able to put their lopsided first set loss behind them in the second, as they tightened up their game on both the defensive and offensive side of the ball. The teams were close at the midway point of the set with the Warriors holding a slight 15-13 advantage.

The game began to get feisty during the second, as Crusader head coach and the Warrior assistant coach were assessed yellow cards for arguing the referee’s calls that they deemed to be questionable. The yellow card in volleyball serves a warning much like soccer. The Warriors were then issued two red cards, for continuing to argue with the head referee, giving two free points to the Crusaders.

These setbacks did not hinder the momentum built by the Warriors and they grew their lead 20-14. Manus Toews led the Warriors offence from the right side as tournament MVP, and setter; Griffin Bisson gave him a steady dose of sets, which he attacked with malice.

The Crusaders could not right the ship, and they suffered a major blow near the end of the set as Howard hobbled off the court after trying to save a ball close to the poles, which hold the net in place. The Warriors took the second set 25-16.

The momentum remained squarely on the Warriors side of the court, as they took an early 8-7 lead in the third, a set that is only played to 15 points. The Warriors grew their lead to 10-7. From there they did not take their foot off the gas, as their attackers were able to crush the ball past the outstretched hands of the Crusader blocks.

With the score 13-8, Warriors middle attacker Felix Maltese smashed the ball onto the Crusader court, all but putting the game out of reach.The Crusaders were able to keep their season alive scoring the next two points, but it was to little to late.The Warriors took the third and deciding set 15-10, on the way to the gold medal.

The Warriors came in third in both Supervolley and the Dawson Tournament. According to Toews, in the days leading up to the Championships the team really began to mesh into one unit.

“I’m feeling pretty pumped, it’s been a long season,” said Toews. “It feels really nice to finally win a tournament. In the first couple of tournaments we didn’t come together as a team, we were six individuals on the court. In this tournament we managed to mesh and come together as a team and pull out a victory.

“In the last few practices we thought to ourselves we have to get our stuff together. We can’t be bickering with each other and get a win. You can’t win as six separate players and we started communicating more. Things came together, personally I always thought we were the best team.”

The Warriors went undefeated throughout the tournament on their way to gold.

In the boys bronze medal game, the Supervolley champion, Porter Creek Rams took on the Robert Service School Knights, from Dawson City. The Rams beat the Knights 25-19, 25-14 to win bronze in straight sets.

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