Spartans set for provincials
By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter
Photo Courtesy of Gwen Moncayo
The senior boys volleyball team has known all season they would be competing for the provincial title, after learning they would host the tournament.
Having the safety net of one more weekend of guaranteed volleyball didn’t distract them or slow them down at all, as they downed the Cochrane High School Cobras 2-1 Nov. 18 at George McDougall High School to capture the 3A banner.
“We won the games that we were supposed to early in the tournament which allowed us to rest some of our guys at times, saving their energy for the playoff rounds,” said Spartans Head Coach Cole Hintz.
After dropping the first set of the final, Hintz noted that his players loosened up, got back to the things that made them successful this season and chipped away at the powerful outside hitting Cobra squad.
“They are a hard team to slow down,” said Hintz. “We hung in there for the second set and once the third set started, our confidence took over and carried us the rest of the way.”
Winning zones means the Spartans will enter provincials with a higher seed. Now, they will be ranked No. 4 instead of No. 11.
Last year at zones, the Spartans were bested by the Springbank Community High School Phoenix. The two teams locked horns again, this time in the semis, as the Spartans redeemed themselves with the 2-0 sweep.
“When the games really matter, we have a way of rising to the occasion,” said Hintz. “We can grind it out, but we have this ability to raise our game to another level, and that’s an exciting place to be.”
The Spartans went 4-2 in the round robin, with wins over the Bert Church High School Rams, the Brooks Composite High School Buffaloes, the Canmore Collegiate High School Crusaders and the Phoenix. They were tripped up against the Cobras and the host Mustangs.
Provincials kicked off Thursday night at the Strathmore High School. The Spartans will play three games Nov. 24 with the round robin wrapping up Nov. 25. It marks the second time in three years the Spartans will battle for a provincial title. Two years ago, they finished third for the school’s best showing at the tournament.
Senior girls move on
The senior girls team should send a letter of thanks to the St. Joseph’s Collegiate Crusaders for winning the provincial championship last season.
By virtue of their win, the South Central Zone was awarded a wild card position for this year’s provincials, which came in pretty handy once the Spartans faced off against a team that had only dropped one match all year in the final.
Like the boys, the girls met the Cobras in the zone championship Nov. 18 in Canmore, but they didn’t walk away with an identical result.
The Cobras were too powerful, as they cooked the Spartans 2-0 (25-20, 25-18).
“We knew we had a spot in provincials once we reached the final, but we still wanted to win,” said Spartans Head Coach Randy Moncks. “It would have been nice to bring home a banner for the gym wall.”
It will be the first trip back to provincials since 2010 and the first under Moncks’ watch.
The Spartans made it official with a 2-0 (25-21, 25-15) over the Olds High School Spartans in the semis.
“Our season started on a bit of a roller coaster in September and October, so it was nice to see our play level out,” said Moncks. “We brought a lot of balls up on defence this weekend and played a great transition game.”
Finishing the round robin as the top seed, the Spartans were able to rest while the two- and three-seeded teams faced off in the first round of the playoffs.
The Spartans picked up wins over the Springbank Phoenix 2-0 (28-26, 25-13), the Spartans 2-1(25-21, 25-16), the George McDougal Mustangs 2-1 (25-16, 21-25, 15-10) and the Highwood High School Mustangs 2-0 (25-13, 25-21).
The team took off Wednesday afternoon for Sylvan Lake to take care of the pre-tourney photos and banquet, along with one final practice before tip-off Nov. 23. Both the boys and girls provincials can be tracked online on the Alberta School’s Athletic Association website.
Great season
The junior varsity girls hosted their zone tournament last weekend. Win or lose, it would have been the final tournament of the season, as there is no provincial matchup in junior varsity.
The Spartans ended their season by going 0-4 on home turf. They lost to the ge MacDougall Mustangs and Cochrane Cobras to open the tourney Nov. 17, and closed out the season with losses to the Springbank Phoenix and took the Bow Valley High School Bobcats to three sets, but eventually lost.
“We were in the more difficult pool, which made it tough for us,” said Spartans Head Coach Carrie Westgard. “Looking back on the year, I was happy with the way we improved from the beginning of the year to now.”