Junior varsity volleyball champs crowned

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This article was published 27/11/2017 (3109 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Setter Holly Feschuk earned tournament MVP honours and libero Emma Benson pitched in with a stellar defensive effort to spark the Lord Selkirk Royals to a sweep of Brandon’s Vincent Massey Vikings in the girls final of the McDonald’s AAAA Provincial Junior Varsity Volleyball Championships at Investors Group Athletic Centre on Monday night.

The Royals, who lost to the Vikings in the tournament’s preliminary power pool and were ranked third coming into the quarter-finals, prevailed 26-24, 25-8, 25-23 over top-ranked Massey.

In the boys final, the Steinbach Sabres rallied to beat the St. Paul’s Crusaders 18-25, 25-27, 25-21, 25-10, 18-16.

Royals 3 Vikings 0

The Royals rebounded from an uneven performance in the preliminary round to steam through the semis, beating arch rival Transcona, and then Massey in the final.

“It was a lot of determination,” said Selkirk head coach Victoria Sherwood, whose club had won three of four previous meetings with the Vikings.

“We lost in our league final (to Transcona), so we came back from that. We knew we had to play better, we had to work harder and I think that was the boost they needed to get in there and take this.”

Sherwood installed the 5-3 Benson as the team’s libero at the start of the season and the move paid off in a big way.

“She’s always wanted to swing as well but we know she has great defence, so we put her in that libero spot for the first time at the beginning of the season and she really embraced it,” Sherwood said of Benson. “She took her role and knew everything coming over that net was her job to dig up.”

Benson admitted she missed playing left side but she took great pride in her specialist role.

“I think I was a good fit there and I played very good today,” Benson said.

“They were ranked No. 1 and we beat them in our home tournament and… then we lost to them in the provincial round robin and so we came in a little tight, but we knew we could take it.”

When the Vikings staged a rally in the third set to take a 21-14 lead, the Royals always seemed to have an answer. Selkirk tied the game at 22-22 before closing it out 25-23.

“We couldn’t get our offence going — they were digging everything,” Massey head coach Kelly DeRoo said. “Their libero is quite fast, she’s quite smart. She can read hitters very well. Our game plan going in was to not serve to her at all. She’s a great passer and we thought that would get their middles out of the game but their middles scored a lot and we just struggled to get a solid block.”

Feschuk, who was outstanding during the match as she distributed the ball to her hitters with a superb touch, explained the Royals’ key to success.

“We stayed positive. Don’t doubt your teammates because they’ll always bring you back up,” she said.

Sabres 3 Crusaders 2

Fourth-seeded St. Paul’s gave No. 2 Steinbach a scare, but the Sabres showed they are a resilient bunch as they battled back from a two-set deficit.

“It feels great,” Sabres middle and tournament MVP Paxton Koop said. “We didn’t have a good start at the beginning, down two, but we came together as a team and made a comeback.”

For Koop and his brother Tyson, who was named to the tournament all-star team, volleyball is a family affair.

Their mom — Michelle Sawatzky-Koop, a former national team setter — is their head coach. Their dad, Chris Koop, serves as an assistant coach.

“It’s an amazing feeling to coach them,” Sawatzky-Koop said. “Sometimes I feel bad for them because they have to listen to mom and dad all the time. And it’s tough for them to know always, are we out there because they’re our parents or are we out there because we’re legit volleyball players? I think they’re proving over and over again they’re legit players.

“The whole team has embraced the whole thing. This group has been together, the core, since they were 11.”

After five seasons of coaching her sons, Sawatzky-Koop said she is ready to pass the torch.

“We have coaches at the high school who are going to be coaching the varsity and I’m really happy about that,” she said. “I think it’s time my boys play for someone else.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @sawa14