The Sacred Heart Lady Saints volleyball team battled valiantly this past weekend in Esterhazy to make the playoff round but ultimately fell short, finishing in fourth place.
The Lady Saints began the tournament against the host Esterhazy Warriors, who were the victors at Sacred Heart鈥檚 home tournament earlier this year.
Sacred Heart came out strong and played some of their best volleyball of the season in the first set, downing Esterhazy 25-19. The Saints couldn鈥檛 carry their momentum into the second set however, as the Warriors rebounded to down Sacred Heart 18-25. The third set also went the way of the host team, as the Saints dropped the final set of their opening match 7-15.
Wynyard was next on Sacred鈥檚 radar for the tournament and while the Saints put up a strong fight they couldn鈥檛 find a way to string together enough points, falling to Wynyard in straight sets 13-25, 20-25.
But not only did the Saints lose the game, they also lost a key part of their offence in starting setter Nicole Redl, who had to leave the tournament with an injury. 鈥淚n that match we lost our starting setter Nicole Redl so on Saturday we had to go with JJ Chogata,鈥� said Lady Saints head coach Perry Enns, adding that Chogata has little to no experience at the setter position.
The lack of experience for Chogata didn鈥檛 show in their first game on Saturday however, as the Saints handled Carnduff with ease, picking up a straight sets victory 25-18, 25-20.
Their final round-robin game saw the Saints meet the Estevan Elecs resulting in a straight sets defeat to the southern Saskatchewan team, dropping the first set 20-25 and the second 12-25 to finish the round-robin portion of the tournament in fourth place.
Fourth place was good enough for a playoff berth, but it meant that the Lady Saints had to take on the top seeded Wynyard Bears and just like in the round-robin the Saints were upended by the more experienced Bears, falling 13-25 and 18-25 to end their tournament run. 鈥淥verall it was a great tournament for us,鈥� mentioned Enns. 鈥淎 lot of rookies got to play and JJ played very well in the setting position which is new for her and Lexi Guy played very well on defence.鈥�
The next Lady Saints will now prepare for a couple of exhibition games in the coming weeks before heading back to Esterhazy for Regional Playoffs in two weeks鈥� time.
