Sacred Heart High School played host to a six team senior girls' volleyball tournament this past weekend. Taking part in the tournament were the host Saints as well as the Kahkewistahaw Hurricanes, Estevan Elecs, Esterhazy Warriors, Melville Cobras and YRHS Raiders.
Both the YRHS Raiders and Sacred Heart Saints senior girls' volleyball teams had issues throughout the round-robin portion of the tournament, finishing in the bottom half heading into playoffs.
The Raiders finished round-robin play with a 5-5 record, defeating both Melville and Esterhazy in straight sets (27-25, 25-13 and 25-23, 25-20), splitting with Estevan 25-22, 18-25 and losing in straight sets to both Kahkewistahaw (24-26, 22-25) and Sacred Heart (19-25, 22-25) for fourth place.
Meanwhile the Saints lost in straight sets to both Kahkewistahaw (22-25, 19-25) and Esterhazy (17-25, 23-25) before splitting with Melville (30-28, 14-25) and Estevan (27-25, 20-25) and sweeping the YRHS 25-19, 25-22 to finish in fifth place after the round-robin portion with a 4-6 record.
The fourth and fifth place finishes for the Yorkton squads meant that they were to meet one another in the first round of the playoffs, mere moments after they faced each other in the round-robin, where the Saints prevailed in straight sets.
But unfortunately for the Saints, their round-robin dominance over their Yorkton peers was not to be repeated as the Raiders surged out to a large lead in both sets.
And while the Saints managed to make things interesting in both sets thanks to the powerful serving of Taneisha Roussin it was just not enough as the YRHS Raiders took both sets, 25-23 and 25-22, to advance to the semi-finals and eliminate the host Saints in the process.
After ousting their toughest competition from the tournament the Raiders really took off, defeating top ranked Kahkewistahaw in three sets, 25-14, 21-25, 15-10 before taking first place honours with a straight sets victory over second ranked Melville, 26-24, 25-18.
Following the tournament, Raiders head coach Rae-Lynn Somogyi said that her team improved throughout the weekend and, after a less than impressive round-robin, really showed that they deserved to be crowned champions. "We have had trouble jelling as a team this season but at the end of this tournament they came together and actually won some games and made it look like volleyball," offered Somogyi, adding that her girls made some better decisions late in the tournament that enabled them to take the title.
Somogyi also touched on the fact that the Raiders are now a perfect 1-for-1 in tournament final appearances in 2014, having previously been defeated each time in the semi-final round, with just two more tournaments on the schedule before Regional playdowns in Regina.
However Somogyi wasn't the only Yorkton head coach that was pleased with the way their team performed throughout the weekend.
Sacred Heart's Perry Enns was also proud of the way his girls battled throughout the tournament and says that Sacred Heart's fifth place finish in round-robin was really the last thing on his mind. "I wasn't really worried about where we finished in the round-robin because everyone made the playoffs," suggested Enns. "I tried to get everyone in so we had different people playing different positions. I kind of approached the round-robin as a building and growth opportunity and not necessarily worried about wins and losses."
One player that Enns felt really showed how far she has come since the start of the season was the aforementioned Roussin, whose serving really kept opposing teams on their heels. "Whe's one of, if not, the top server we have on the team," offered Enns of his star server. "She has a good, strong jump/float serve and a lot of teams really struggle handling her serves."
Next action
The next action for the YRHS Raiders senior girls' volleyball team will be this coming weekend when they take to the road for a tournament in Foam Lake and Wynyard on Friday and Saturday.
The Saints, meanwhile, are off this upcoming weekend but will be back in action on Halloween weekend in Esterhazy before hosting conferences on November 8.
