Junior B Hawks fly high in home tourney

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Holy Cross Collegiate junior B Hawks girls and boys volleyball teams surprised everyone at their year-end home tournament as there were a lot of close rallies that got the home fans excited for their kids.
The boys were defeated in straight sets in the finals by Lawrence Grassi of Canmore and the girls pushed their semifinal to the sudden death third set where they fell to Three Hills by two points.
“I think at the beginning we were a little asleep,” said junior B-girls coach Alex Hutcheon.
“But then we woke up and played as a team. Our last game we lost in the semi-finals. We lost the first set, won the second set and lost in third-tie breaker set 17-15. They fought right until the end, it was really good.”
Hutcheon mentioned that starting out slow and finishing strong was the trend of their season, while fighting tooth and nail every game, but found it difficult to get over the hump.
“We just wouldn’t get a bounce here and there, it would’ve helped us win,” he said.
“It wasn’t anything to do with their effort. I can tell you we were always inches away from success.”
He added that the team’s strengths were communication and basic fundamentals of the game.
A goal for Jason Burns’ boys team all season was to perform well in the home tournament and to give themselves a shot at the final, and they followed through with their ambition and provided some great excitement in the finals match.
“It was exciting,” said Burns. “We lost in the championship round but at the same time at the end of the tournament I mentioned to the guys ‘would you have ever thought that we’d be playing in a championship game?’ They were absolutely surprised, but we just got outcompeted.”
He added that their level of growth from the start of the season to the finish was substantial in experiencing success in tournaments.