The Sacred Heart Saints senior boys' volleyball team travelled to the University of Regina on September 19-20 for the annual Cougar High School Classic Volleyball Tournament.
There were 20 teams in attendance which were divided up into four pools of five teams each. Sacred Heart's pool consisted of Regina Balfour, Moose Jaw Vanier, Estevan and Regina Riffel.
Pool play consisted of a round-robin format. On Friday Sacred Heart played Vanier in their first round-robin match, defeating the Vikings in three sets. The second match was against Balfour. Both teams won a set before the Redmen shocked the Saints, taking the third set 10-15.
The third and final match of the day saw the Saints face off against a tough Estevan Elecs squad. However Sacred Heart managed to put together two strong sets to win in straight sets, 25-23 and 25-18.
Saturday morning the boys had one last round-robin match to play which was against Riffel. Sacred Heart controlled both sets winning 25-17 and 25-22 to finish with a 3-1 record and second overall in the pool behind the undefeated Balfour Redmen.
The second place finish in round-robin meant that Sacred Heart went on to play the first place team from pool 'D', Regina's Winston Knoll Wolverines.
Winston Knoll was very strong and defeated the Saints in two sets, setting up a final match against Weyburn.
The Saints had a slow start against the Eagles, losing the first set 18-25. However the Saints battled hard in the second set, leading occasionally before falling just short, losing the second set 23-25. The loss to Weyburn meant the Saints finished a respectable seventh out of 20 teams.
"This is Sacred Heart's best finish at the U of R tournament in years," said Saints head coach Curtis Moen. "There are many strong teams at this tournament, many of which are larger schools then ours yet the team played hard and held their own."
Moen then went on to commend a few of his players for their outstanding performances throughout the tournament. "Setter Kade Johnson did an excellent job serving and setting up plays at the net," offered Moen, adding that Jonah Sutter showed good improvement throughout the tournament while rookie Kaeden Hanishewsky did a good job filling in as the libero for the team.
Next game action for the Saints senior boy's volleyball team is on September 26-27 when the team heads north of Saskatoon to Hepburn for their third tournament of the season.
