It was a successful home tournament for the 2015 edition of the YRHS Lady Raiders Sr. volleyball team this weekend.
The Lady Raiders dominated the competition from start to finish at their home tournament, racking up an impressive 11-1 record throughout round-robin play with straight sets victories over Langenburg (25-19, 25-20), Sacred Heart (25-18, 25-23), Oxbow (25-22, 25-21), Melville (25-13, 25-13) and the Jr. Raiders (25-11, 25-9).
The only team that proved to be much of a challenge was Foam Lake, as the Raiders dropped the second set 18-25 after taking the first set 27-25 for their only defeat of the round-robin. 鈥淭hat round-robin, it really gave the girls some confidence,鈥� offered YRHS Lady Raider head coach Rae-Lynn Somogyi. 鈥淭hey knew they could beat some teams that they had split with before or lost to. We lost to Foam Lake before. I know we split with them in the round-robin this time, but that gave us confidence.
鈥淏eating Oxbow in our last round-robin game was huge for us as well because we knew Oxbow was one of the strongest teams in our tournament.鈥�
The strong record throughout round-robin guaranteed the Lady Raiders a spot in Saturday鈥檚 semi-final playoff round, where they met their Gladstone Avenue rivals from Sacred Heart, who defeated Langenburg in straight sets in the first round of playoffs 25-19, 26-24.
The orange-clad Raiders took the first set easily 25-17, however the Saints proved they weren鈥檛 just going to roll over for their Yorkton counterparts by taking the second set 22-25.
That sent the semi-final matchup between the two Yorkton schools to a third and final set where the Raiders used their experience and strength to win 15-7 to move on to the finals against Oxbow.
The Lady Raiders used the momentum from the semi-finals, as well as the confidence from beating Oxbow earlier in the tournament to do it once again in the finals, downing the Knights in straight sets 25-20, 25-20, to win their 2015 home tournament. 鈥淭hat last game against Oxbow, it was a great game,鈥� suggested Somogyi, continuing, 鈥淥ur girls passed, they talked. They were on a high the whole time.
鈥淥ur serves were there, they ran a strong offence, they were digging everything, they just played like they can and should play and it worked for them.鈥�
Somogyi then said that the leadership of their captain and setter Emma Teneycke was evident all tournament long, helping the Raiders settle down during tough moments in matches or enabling them to buckle down and get the win. 鈥淥ur captain Emma Teneycke is a big quarterback for us out there. She鈥檚 always getting the girls going. She鈥檚 our setter so she鈥檚 always in every play,鈥� said Somogyi, adding that Olivia Tomcala also stepped up her game. 鈥淥livia Tomcala really stepped up offensively. She鈥檚 a big middle hitter for us and she did a great job all tournament.鈥�
The Lady Raiders will now take the following two weekends off before travelling just down the road on October 23 and 24, when they will compete at the Sacred Heart Saints volleyball tournament.
Junior Raiders
The YRHS Junior Raiders were also in action this past weekend at the Senior Raiders鈥� home tournament.
The young Raiders had a hard time of it, losing all 12 sets, falling to the Sr. Raiders (11-25, 9-25), Langenburg (15-25, 10-25), Sacred Heart (19-25, 8-25), Oxbow (17-25, 13-25), Foam Lake 11-25, 8-25) and Melville (20-25, 17-25).
