Huskies tame Warriors

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/11/2019 (2435 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The last time the Sturgeon Heights Huskies and Westwood Warriors met in junior varsity girls volleyball action, neither team was happy to be there.

It was the third-place game in the West Winnipeg Athletic Conference playoffs, with Sturgeon Heights prevailing.

The teams met again Monday night at Investors Group Athletic Centre. This time, they were playing for a provincial title.

It ended up being the same result as their conference matchup just more than a week ago, as the No.1-ranked Huskies took down the seventh-seeded Warriors in straight sets (25-19, 25-18, 25-22) to be crowned the JV high school girls volleyball top team in the province. It’s the first provincial volleyball banner for the program since the amalgamation of Sturgeon Creek Collegiate and Collège Silver Heights Collegiate in 2007. Sturgeon was a perfect 6-0 at this year’s provincials.

“You know what, this group here had a fantastic year and it all started with training,” Huskies coach Ryan Vermette said. “These girls train like animals. They do the little things that they need to in their training to be effective on the court.”

Westwood fell short on Monday, but what they overcame to even reach the final was an impressive feat in itself. In provincial group play, the Warriors went 1-2 and looked like they were destined to make a first-round or possibly second-round exit. But when it came time for the single-elimination playoff tournament, they looked like a whole new team. The Warriors outlasted the Grant Park Pirates, Oak Park Raiders and Garden City Fighting Gophers to be one of the final two teams standing. But unfortunately for Westwood, it doesn’t feel like much of a consolation prize as they did the exact same thing last year. In 2018, Westwood was also the No. 7-seeded team and made it all the way to the finals before losing to Oak Park.

“That first day of the single knockout, we seemed to build momentum,” Westwood coach Peter Sdrolias said. “Same as last year, we just fought and scrapped until the end. We just fell short to a strong Sturgeon Heights team.”

Despite facing a 2-0 deficit on Monday, Westwood didn’t go down easy. They came out firing in the third set, claiming a 15-9 lead. But Sturgeon Heights, led by some strong serving from left-side attacker Brook Duncalfe and middle Ria Sagert, rallied back with a 10-1 run en route to taking the set 25-22 to clinch the match.

“Today was just ball control, I think, at the end of the day. Our serve receive beat their serve,” Vermette said. “They’re an aggressive serving team and a good opponent, but we knew if we could pass (well), we’d be OK.”

For Huskies setter Emily Barnett, a Grade 10 student, a provincial banner is the perfect way to cap off her junior varsity career.

“Before we played, we had a plan and we stuck to it,” said Barnett, a tournament all-star.

“We were able to execute what we planned.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31