Steinbach star earns top billing in coaches’ poll

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This article was published 25/11/2023 (682 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

STEINBACH — Sienna Driedger took an MVP turn in 2021 when she led the Steinbach Sabres to a junior varsity girls provincial AAAA volleyball crown.

Two years later, the Grunthal product and her teammates have designs on a AAAA varsity girls title, which would be the school’s first since 1968.

It’s a good bet Driedger will be the star of the show.

“We’re going in very determined and we have kind of a really good mindset,” says Driedger of the No. 3-seeded Sabres, who will be favoured in their provincial quarter-final matchup Saturday. “I think everybody really wants to win, but also we’re playing good teams from here on out, so you never know, but we’ve just gotta go and kind of leave it all on the floor and lean on each other. Everyone has a vital role to play, whether they’re on the court playing or calling things out from the bench.”

Driedger, a six-foot left side who serves as Steinbach’s captain, has been voted the No. 1 player in the annual Free Press top-10 coaches’ poll.

Her long-time teammate, setter Isabelle Voth, was voted No. 2.

The high regard opponents have for Driedger is no surprise to Sabres head coach Amy Toews.

“She has one of the most aggressive attacks I think I’ve seen at this level,” says Toews, who played middle at the University of Manitoba from 2006 until 2011. “She’s got a fast swing. She’s got a hard swing. It’s high and at angles that I have not seen. She can just hit sharper angles than any other female I’ve really seen at the high-school level, so how is a team supposed to defend that?

“She’s really hard to defend. We’ll go back and watch a video of teams that we’ve played and they’re all kind of pinching up on her because they know that she can hit those sharp angles, but then she goes and hits a deep corner too, right?”

For all of her offensive prowess, Driedger’s ability to improve her all-around game could be just as impressive.

“I used to be a player who was very much offensive heavy and my backcourt struggled,” says Driedger, who was seventh in the 2022 poll and the lone Grade 11 player honoured.

“In the past kind of couple of years I’ve really taken the time to work on my back row as well and so I’d say now in my Grade 12 year, more than any other time, I felt like that is a more rounded part of my game.”

Driedger has also been a much sought-after U Sports prospect and recently committed to attend Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C., next year. The Spartans, a perennial national power currently ranked second in Canada, have reached the last two national championship games, winning once.

“She’s just a really well-rounded player,” says Spartans head coach Ryan Hofer of Driedger. “She has a great arm. She has a lot of shots. She has great ball control and she’s a solid jumper. I feel she’s solid in all of the areas — it might not be one. She’s a good height and her freaky skill might be that she’s just really good at all the different phases of the game.”

Driedger, who has been inspired by former Trinity Western star Hilary How, says going to school in B.C. feels like a great move.

“I’ve always wanted to play university and for a long time I thought, ‘OK , I’m just gonna stay home play and somewhere local,’” she says. “But after kind of going out to training — I was there last January — and I’d been talking to them for a long time and after hearing about the program and everything like that, it very much felt like a home away from home. So, then going away from home was less daunting in a sense.”

But first there’s business at hand. All season, Steinbach has been locked in a heated battle with the Lord Selkirk Royals, currently No. 1, and the second-seeded Collège Jeanne-Sauvé Olympiens for provincial supremacy.

“I think everyone’s really put in the work,” says Driedger. “There’s a lot of strong teams this year and so that’s been really fun for us and I think it’s been a good challenge.”

Adds Toews: “(Driedger) thrives in those competitive moments and she’s a leader for the other girls on the team in those competitive moments, because it can be nerve-racking, especially for some of the Grade 11s on our team who haven’t necessarily experienced that kind of competitive environment before. She’s really level-headed on the court. I mean, that’s why she’s captain, right? She kind of brings everybody up with her.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca