The Yorkton Force Volleyball Club have officially began their 2016 U17 volleyball season this past weekend, as they hosted their home exhibition tournament in preparation for the 2016 Sask Cup and Provincial competitions.
The Force welcomed Esterhazy, Rose Valley (RVVC), Saskatoon 鈥� JCVC, Melfort and Winnipeg to the city for the two-day event, as well as two other local teams: East Central Elite and Yorkton Blitz U16. 鈥淚t鈥檚 nice that we can get started so early, and that we can get teams to come out to play us before the bigger competitions get started,鈥� said Force assistant coach Darren Balaberda, adding that while the tournament was an exhibition competition it was still fully sanctioned and highly competitive. 鈥淭his tournament is still registered with SVA and still sanctioned and some of the teams that were here are definitely some of the top teams in the province.
鈥淩ose Valley and JCVC are Tier One teams and ranked in the top eight in the province so it was good to have them. Also having a team from Winnipeg that finished third last year in Manitoba was good because it allowed our girls to see how they match up against some of the top teams.鈥�
Overall the Force went 2-5 in seven games, beating the U16 Blitz (25-23, 25-17), and East Central (19-25, 25-23, 15-4), but losing to Esterhazy (17-25, 26-28), Rose Valley (13-25, 13-25), Melfort (19-25, 16-25), JCVC (9-25, 9-25), and Winnipeg (5-25, 7-25); results that Balaberda felt were due to a lack of consistency on the court. 鈥淲e played very inconsistently and that鈥檚 something we did last year and something we need to correct early this year,鈥� said Balaberda. 鈥淲e have such good volleys, good plays and we stick with the best teams until the end when we get down on ourselves after a couple of bad plays and fall apart.
鈥淲e need to regroup as a team and stop that momentum swing quickly and stay in the matches on the court and mentally, and I think once we get some more practices and everything we鈥檒l be able to do that.鈥�
The Force聽 - consisting of eight Yorkton girls and two from other communities 鈥� will now focus on improving in practice ahead of their Sask Cup events starting at the end of January and through to Provincials at the end of April.
