Vikings’ conquest complete

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This article was published 02/12/2024 (372 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Vincent Massey Vikings played the long game Monday night.

When they were finished, the Brandonites were the proud owners of the first provincial AAAA varsity girls volleyball title in school history.

Sparked by a superb 22-kill performance from left side Jersey Hansen-Young, Massey roared back from an opening set loss to beat the Collège Jeanne-Sauvé Olympiens 3-1 (20-25, 28-26, 25-22, 25-21) in the championship final at Investors Group Athletic Centre.

“Every single person who stepped out on the court, and even the people that were on the bench, made a gigantic impact,” said Hansen-Young, who added five digs and three service aces en route to being named tournament MVP. “We wouldn’t have been in this position and we wouldn’t have had this outcome without every single person on our team.”

In the varsity boys final, the top-ranked River East Kodiaks got eight kills each from Connor Freeman and Eli Ulrich and cruised to a 3-0 (25-16, 25-23, 25-22) triumph over the second-seeded St. Paul’s Crusaders.

Monday’s slow start for the No. 1-ranked Vikings was similar to last week’s early struggles in the semifinals, when Massey went down 2-1 to the Steinbach Sabres before winning two consecutive sets to advance.

“At the beginning of that first set we realized we were going to have to step up our game or it’s not going to go our way,” said Hansen-Young, recently named the province’s No. 1 player in the Free Press coaches’ poll. “I think something just clicked in everybody’s head because we’ve had this drive for the entire season. This is what we’ve been aiming for. That set really got everybody moving.”

Massey head coach Kelly DeRoo was very comfortable with her team’s ability to push back.

“I think after our semifinal I didn’t have a doubt that we could come back from that loss in the first set,” said DeRoo. “We know we can fight hard. We proved that on Wednesday and we proved that tonight. I’m really proud of the girls for believing they could win the game even after we dropped the first set.”

Massey’s Hannah McGregor, who had five kills and four aces, and Zoe Price, who chipped in with seven kills and one ace, were named to the tournament all-star team.

“We knew we had to capitalize more on their free balls,” said DeRoo, whose squad finished the season with a 50-2 record.

“They gave us a lot of free balls and we put them in the system a lot, which was helpful, but sometimes when we got a free ball we weren’t scoring. We needed to believe in ourselves and swing a little harder.”

The No. 3 Olympiens, who were seeking the third provincial crown in program history, got 13 kills and five digs from tournament all-star Anna Filippin-Buller and 19 digs from libero Taylor Labossiere.

CJS setter Celeste Pelletier, Steinbach’s Kiersten Reimer and Danika Jakabek of the Lord Selkirk Royals also received all-star nods.

“I thought in the third set we ran out of gas,” said Olympiens head coach Donata Huebert. “We looked tired and I don’t know if the stress got to us a little bit. I feel we ran too much and we couldn’t calm ourselves down. And that made it really tough.”

Kodiaks 3 Crusaders 0

River East unleashed its balanced offensive attack with tournament MVP, setter Matthew Brown, at the controls.

“I knew if we played our game I didn’t think anyone could hang with us,” said Brown, whose team was a perfect 45-0 this season. “We kind of knew that coming in and we went and executed at a high level.”

It was the Kodiaks first provincial AAAA varsity boys championship since 1982.

“It’s a huge day,” said River East head coach Zack Diboll. “To finally cap off that perfect season — that’s lucky man. I know (Vincent) Massey just did it last year but how the heck did we do it again this year? Crazy.”

Twins Gavin Ulrich, a libero, and Eli Ulrich, a left side, were named to the tournament all-star team. Nathan Adam of the Vincent Massey Trojans and Logan Barnabe of the Gabrielle-Roy Les Roys also received all-star honours.

Middle Tanner Nachtigall had four kills, three aces and one dig for the winners.

“To win three straight (sets), I don’t want to say luck, but at this stage of the season it’s very rare to find someone’s able to go three straight,” said Diboll. “I think the turning point was that second set, coming back and winning that one. That was a huge emotional set win.”

Crusaders Keon Elkie, with eight kills, and Liam Mancer, with three kills and one dig, also joined the tournament all-star squad.

“They’re more experienced — they’ve got a lot of Grade 12s on their side whereas we’re primarily Grade 11s in those key positions — like setter and libero,” said St. Paul’s head coach Dustin Spiring of the Kodiaks. “They have a lot of experience and they just took over.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca