After facing off in SPAA finals, the St. Paul Regional Saints and Mallaig Stingers boys and girls teams set their sights on capturing their zone banners this past weekend, a feat that all four teams managed to achieve.
The Saints welcomed teams to home courts over the weekend, as they hosted 3A girls and boys.
Saints girls
The girls’ Saints team would sail through the round robin games to face off against the Westwood Trojans out of Fort McMurray in the finals on Saturday night, in which they applied the pressure and won in two sets, 25 -21 and 25-19.
“The girls played well all weekend,” said coach Hank Smid, noting the girls felt a “bit of pressure,” as they had won zones in the previous year, and were eager to make it a three-peat. While he felt Saturday night finals didn’t see their best play yet this season, he noted, “They got the job done and that’s the most important thing.”
The other achievement was, for the first time in Smid’s knowledge of the school’s history, that a team has won three consecutive zone championships.
Saints player Courtney Hebert chalked up the win to “a lot of hard work and dedication,” and said, “It’s definitely exciting to win zones at home in my Grade 12 year. To have my family and the rest of the community here supporting us was a great thing.”
She noted that the girls have struggled to get to the playoffs in their last few appearances at provincials, so that will be the team’s goal, which she thinks “is attainable as long as we keep working hard and putting in our best effort.”
Stingers girls
The Stingers girls had a solid season in league play, ending with capturing the SPAA banner earlier in the week before heading to zones. They were hoping to repeat their zones success from last year as they hit the road for Anzac last week.
“We won all our matches in the round robin,” said coach Ian MacGillivray, noting the team played “exceptionally well” against hosts Anzac in the semi-final, winning in two sets to take on École des Beaux Lacs out of Bonnyville in the final. The team knew that École des Beaux Lacs would be a stiff challenge, and that expectation was borne out, as they were done 23 – 22 in the first set, and came back to win it. In the second set, the girls maintained the lead and won.
“It was excellent volleyball,” said MacGillivray, adding the girls “were ecstatic” to get the win against such a solid team.
As the team heads into provincials, MacGillivray says that keeping their nerves steady and playing the game they have played all year will be critical to the girls’ success.
“We’ve played pretty well all year. I’m just hoping we’ll play to the best of their ability, and what results, results.”
Saints boys
The Saints boys were also at home for zones, looking to follow up their SPAA win with the zones banner, which they did. Following their zones win, jubilant coach Brandon Strocki said their weekend play started off slow, but that the team picked up their game as the weekend went on, steadily improving all the way up to the final game, where they faced off against Fort McMurray’s Westwood as well.
The game was a close, point-for-point battle, but Regional managed to gain the lead.
“We made some key blocks, and they made some mistakes and that allowed us to pull ahead,” said Strocki, noting the final game saw the boys win by about seven points. The second set continued to be close, but this time, Westwood was the ones to gain the lead. The Saints clawed their way back, took the lead “and never looked back,” said Strocki, noting the “high emotion” game ended 25- 22, giving the team its second consecutive zones banner.
As the team heads into provincials, Strocki said the team will focus on doing what they did well against Westwood, which was taking the game to Westwood, rather than playing reactively.
“We need to be aggressive and attack the ball,” he said.
Stinger boys
The Stingers’ boys went to Vegreville for 1A zones, and like the girls, saw a crowd of followers come along to cheer them on.
“They started off a little shaky,” said Claude Cote, who coaches alongside Denis Jodoin. “But in the semis and finals, they played much better. It was good to see them playing at the level they need to be playing at to be provincial contenders.”
In the semis, the boys took on Plamondon, which they won in straight sets, followed by a win at the finals against Two Hills, also in two straight sets.
“We’re proud of the boys and the support from the fans there was awesome. We look forward to seeing that crew cheer on us at provincials.”
The Saints teams will head to Camrose from Thursday to Saturday for 3A provincials, while the Stingers will be in Bow Island for 1A provincials. See next week’s paper for coverage.
