The senior boys鈥� volleyball team travelled to Humboldt on September 25-26 for a 10 team tournament.
Sacred Heart鈥檚 pool consisted of Humboldt, Birch Hills, Creighton and Nipawin. In the first match Sacred faced the hometown Humboldt Mohawks. The Saints team had a slow first match as they failed to put up their usual hitting at the net and lost 20-25, 14-25
In the second match the Saints played Nipawin. Sacred Heart came alive battling strong hits back and forth with Nipawin. Sacred won the first set 25-22, then the score reversed losing 22-25. In the final set Nick Kerr led the team with his big line hits as the Saints team won the third set 16-14.
In the final match on Friday, the team played Birch Hills. In the first set the Saints team once again showed their strong hitting at the net to win the first set 25-23. In the second set Sacred struggled on their serves and lost 16-25. In the third set, the team took the momentum with Bryan Buzinski鈥檚 big left power hits and took the set 15-6.
On Saturday, Sacred started by playing Creighton. Sacred put up some big blocks against Creighton鈥檚 big hitters which was led by Kaeden Hanishewsky and Noah Clarke. Sacred played a well fought match to win 26-24 and 25-21.
This put the Saints team in second place in their pool after round-robin play, meaning they made it to the quarterfinal playoffs against Middle Lake who was third in pool B.
Middle Lake had a very young team allowing Sacred Heart to throw out some rookie players. Ethan Allan racked up four consecutive serve points while Grady Hawkins showed some good movement on the court. Noah Clarke did a great job setting and hitting at the net as the team easily took the win 25-17, 25-22.
In the semi-final match Sacred came up against Humboldt once again. This was an aggressive game at the net by both teams. Jonah Sutter led the team with some big middle blocks and Nick Kerr laid down six hit points for the team. Sacred won the first set 25-23, then narrowly lost the second set 26-28.
In the third set, Sacred was down 9-13 and rallied back to get some momentum with some strong serving and blocking at the net. Sacred played their hearts out, but narrowly lost 14-16.
This put the Saints into the Bronze match against Creighton.聽 Sacred came into the bronze match on their third consecutive game and despite plying valiantly, the Saints fell to Creighton in three sets to finish in fourth place.
鈥淭he team played extremely well, showing they can play an aggressive net game.,鈥� offered Saints head coach Curtis Moen. 鈥淎lthough many of our matches went to a third set, the team always kept their composure and managed to finish strong.
鈥淣oah Clarke did a great job to step up for the team as the starting setter this tournament.鈥�
Next game action for the Saints is on October 2-3 as the team travels back to Regina to play at Winston Knoll鈥檚 tournament.
