YSAA Volleyball Championships 2019

Grade 7 Boys and Girls Volleyball Champions

Be sure to check out the Glaciers inspirational Pep Rally on Youtube! (Link)

Grade 8-12 Boys and Girls Champions

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Photo by John Tonin

ONE BLOCKER TO BEAT – F.H. Collins Warriors attacker Maya Cairns-Locke (6) hits the ball around Vanier Crusaders blocker Allison Brown during the first set of the Senior Volleyball Championships gold medal game Saturday at Porter Creek.

Warriors complete volleyball triple crown

The Senior Volleyball Championships came to a thrilling end on Saturday afternoon at Porter Creek Secondary School.

By John Tonin on November 25, 2019Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The Senior Volleyball Championships came to a thrilling end on Saturday afternoon at Porter Creek Secondary School. The girls’ final was played between the F.H. Collins Warriors and the Vanier Crusaders.

With a win, the Warriors would secure the triple crown. They were already victorious at the Dawson Invitational Volleyball Tournament and the Supervolley final. They achieved this goal, defeating Vanier 2-0.

Warriors left-side attacker Maya Cairns-Locke said sweeping all the finals was the team’s goal at the beginning of the season.

“We missed it last year, and a lot of us are seniors this year,” said Cairns-Locke. “We decided that was our goal from the get-go. We just went in our first practice and said this is what we want to do.

“Our coach really capitalized on us just getting it and reaching it and we are so happy.”

Cairns-Locke said the Warriors had their strongest game of the season in the Supervolley final against Porter Creek. From there, she said, they just rode that momentum and continued to improve.

“After, we really used it to keep our momentum,” said Cairns-Locke. “We really picked up speed as the season went on. We really got to know each other and what plays we wanted to do with each other and it just really clicked in the last few months.”

Coming into the season the Warriors knew they were going to be a strong offensive team. Cairns-Locke said they worked hard to improve on the defensive end.

“We would do so many drills with our coach drilling balls and drilling serves at us until we popped one up,” said Cairns-Locke. “We knew we were going to be a strong offence from the start so we really tried to capitalize on focusing on defence.”

Cairns-Locke said the Warriors were excited to play the Crusaders in the final and that they gave them everything they could handle.

“They are a really good offensive team and strong on defence too,” said Cairns-Locke. “We would put so much over the net that they would put back over. It was a really fun game.”

In the first set, it was Cairns-Locke setting the tone for the Warriors from the service line. Her service run helped her team build an early lead. Vanier fought back to cut the deficit to four with some big swings from middle Nicole Farkas.

The Warriors picked up their defence at the net blocking everything. They also got good swings out of their middles and they took the first set 25-17.

In the second set, the Warriors amped it up a notch and Cairns-Locke said the team really put it all together.

“In the last set, we just kind of clicked,” said Cairns-Locke. “We just realized this was going to be our game and we just wanted to finish it.”

F.H. showed no weaknesses in the final set of their season. They got big swings from all positions and their defence picked up everything.

Vanier showed no quit and was still attacking the ball and getting good passes, it was just F.H.’s day. The Warriors took the final set 25-12.

The bronze medal game was just as entertaining as the final. In a back-and-forth match, the Porter Creek Rams got past the Robert Service School Knights 2-1.

In the third and deciding set, played to 15, the Rams made fewer mistakes and that proved to be the difference.

F.H. Warriors attacker Emma Boyd was named tournament MVP.

Photo by John Tonin

POWERING IT THROUGH – Vanier Crusaders attacker Rylan Stoker, front, hits a middle attack through the block of Andrew Roberts, right, and Griffin Bisson during the first set of the Senior Volleyball Championships finals at Porter Creek.

Crusaders avenge Supervolley final loss

The boy’s final of the Senior Volleyball Championships was played Saturday at Porter Creek Secondary School.

By Whitehorse Star on November 25, 2019Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The boy’s final of the Senior Volleyball Championships was played Saturday at Porter Creek Secondary School. It was a rematch of the Supervolley final as the F.H. Collins Warriors took on the Vanier Crusaders.

In the Supervolley championship game, it was the Warriors who came out on top of the best of five match 3-2. The teams needed all available sets again to decide a victor, this time it was Vanier who came out on the winning end 2-1.

Tournament MVP Rylan Stoker said the Crusaders came out looking to avenge their Supervolley loss to F.H.

“We basically decided that we weren’t satisfied with how we played the last game,” said Stoker. “So we just basically played how we usually played and had fun in the first set which really helped how we performed through the rest of the game.”

In the first, Vanier came out like they had something to prove. Their block was an impenetrable wall and they were smartly attacking the ball into space – rather than try and hit it as hard as possible.

Stoker, out of the middle, led the charge at the net as his blocking was visibly frustrating the Warriors attackers.

F.H. didn’t show the fire they had in their Supervolley win, it was all Vanier. Stoker put the first set away off a set from Tony Kim to give the Crusaders a 25-14 first set win.

Stoker stressed the importance of a strong first set.

“When we start off strong, we play better more often when we are having fun,” said Stoker as his teammates sprayed him with their water bottles. “That’s what we did the first set, it was a good time. It made us play harder, and better. And we wanted the revenge from Supervolley.”

He said the team didn’t make to many adjustments after Supervolley, but they did try and shore up their blocking, which showed in the first.

“We tightened up on our blocking lines a bit more, as our first line of defence,” said Stoker. “That’s basically it.”

The Warriors didn’t let the first set affect their play in the second, they came out punching. They got out to a 5-1 lead and pushed it to 7-1 by coming out on the winning end of rallies. This forced Vanier into a timeout.

Vanier came out of the break with some fight and got the game knotted after Zack Beaudry went on a big serving run.

The back-half of the second was back-and-forth but it was F.H. who jumped ahead by two points to go up 18-16. Vanier couldn’t recover and lost the second set 25-22.

The deciding third set made the crowd go crazy. Vanier came out flying and F.H. was having trouble passing.

Sam Wanless had a huge chest-pack to give Vanier an 8-4 lead as the teams switched sides. The Crusaders continued to roll and Quinn Howard made it 11-7 with a thunderous attack.

Undeterred, the Warriors fought back and made it 11 all. Setter Griffin Bisson found his attackers and Austin Shaw looked unstoppable scoring plenty of points from the left-side.

Vanier grabbed the momentum back using their block and didn’t relinquish another point winning the final set 15-11 to secure the championship.

In the bronze medal game, the Porter Creek Rams played the Watson Lake Secondary Bears. The Rams came out on the winning end 2-0 in an entertaining tilt.