The YRHS Raiders senior boys鈥� volleyball team limped into the Moose Jaw volleyball tournament licking their wounds after a subpar 2-5 record at the Melville tournament back on October 16-17, but found their stride throughout their most recent tournament to finish in fifth place out of 16 teams this past weekend.
The Raiders opened the tournament by splitting with Mossbank, dropping the first set 19-25 before taking the second set in commanding fashion 25-9.
The Raiders then trounced the host A.E. Peacock Tornadoes, taking both sets from the hapless hosts 25-14, 25-17, before falling to Weyburn 21-25, 18-25, to finish second in Pool A before being reseeded into Tier One. 鈥淲e started off slow in the tournament against Mossbank, but rebounded well and then played five strong sets,鈥� Raider head coach Brendon Weir told Yorkton This Week, adding that playing teams like Mossbank are tough because they really don鈥檛 know too much about them. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 know what to expect from them and that鈥檚 tough as a coach because you can鈥檛 game plan for them, but once we were able to figure out who was strong on their team and who we could maybe exploit defensively, we were able to get our game going and take advantage of the knowledge we gained.鈥�
That was the same situation for the Raiders in their first game of the Tier One competition against Gravelbourg, however the Raider weathered an early Hawk storm to take the first set 25-21. The Raiders fell behind early in the second set and trailed for most of the way before exploding for six straight points to take a two point lead at 23-21; a lead they would not surrender, ultimately winning the second set 25-23.
A pair of tough losses to Saskatoon Christian 21-25, 22-25, meant that the Raiders needed to beat Winnipeg 鈥� Garden City in their final match of pool play, however a flat effort resulted in a first set loss of 6-25. A better effort in the second set still proved to be not enough as the Raiders finished Tier One group play in third place with a 2-4 record, sending the Raiders to the fifth place game where against a team that had beaten them earlier in the competition, the Weyburn Eagles.
This time it was the Raiders that were able to find the win column as they downed Weyburn in straight sets 25-18, 25-20, to finish in fifth place overall and more importantly pick up a win over Weyburn, a team that they鈥檒l see a few more times before Regional playoffs. 鈥淚t does feel pretty good to get instant revenge on them in the same weekend after losing to them on Friday,鈥� offered coach Weir. 鈥淲e鈥檒l see them again next weekend in Estevan, they鈥檒l be coming to our home tournament the weekend after that and then the following weekend they鈥檒l be in our region for Regionals, so to get a win against them is definitely good moving forward.鈥�
Weir then said that the performance of certain players played big roles in the teams鈥� success in Moose Jaw, giving credit to players like TJ McBride, Derek Campbell and Tyson Black. 鈥淲e have Derek Campbell and he鈥檚 our libero. He goes in the back row and passes for our two middle hitters and he鈥檚 one of our best passers and we鈥檙e able to run our offence from him,鈥� said Weir. 鈥淭J McBride is our starting setter and everything revolves around him as far as offence goes. He has a great serve as well as lots of leadership on the court.
鈥淎s for Tyson Black, I put him up there as one of the best swingers in the province. He鈥檚 got a good arm swing, good vertical and any time he touches the ball we have a good opportunity to get that point.鈥�
Weir hopes that all three will continue to lead the Raiders throughout the rest of the season, starting with this coming weekend鈥檚 tournament in Estevan from October 30-31. 鈥淲e鈥檙e into the latter half of our schedule so it was good to get a performance like this out of not only those guys, but the entire team,鈥� offered Weir, continuing, 鈥淲e have about four more weekends in our schedule and that includes Provincials in Swift Current in the middle of November, so we need them to be on top of their game and we need everyone else to have a good showing the rest of the way as well if we want to get to the Provincial tournament.鈥�
