Sacred Heart High School hosted its annual senior boys鈥� volleyball tournament on September 11-12.
The tournament consisted of eight teams:聽 Sacred Heart, Esterhazy, Yorkton Regional, Melville, Roblin, Hepburn, Kincaid and Humboldt.
The volleyball tournament was a round robin format. On Friday the Saints played Esterhazy.聽 In the first set, the grade 12鈥檚 for the Saints won 25-17. In the second set, the rookies had an opportunity to play and came up just short losing 24-26.
In the third and final set the Saints controlled the match winning 15-6. Rookie Louis Shin did a great job passing in the back row while grade 12 player Nick Kerr led the team in hitting with six kill shots and two tips to earn points at the net.
The second match was against the Yorkton Regional. The Saints won in two straight sets winning 25-13 and 25-21. The Saints controlled the net with Kade Johnson and Jonah Sutter showing some great blocking, shutting down the YRHS hitting.
The last match on Friday was against the Melville Cobras. Sacred had a slow start, losing the first set 11-25. In the second set, the team fought hard and came up just short, losing 21-25. Kade Johnson showed some great setting for the team.
Saturday the Saints started by playing Roblin-Goose Lake High School. Sacred started slow, losing the first set 16-25, but rallied back in the second set winning 25-16. Jonah Sutter earned five points in the second set with his strong middle hits, while Jake Javier earned four points from the left power position and earned six consecutive points with his spin serves.
In the third set Sacred went on to win 15-11.
Next up the team played Hepburn. Hepburn took the first set 25-19, then the Saints won the second 25-20.
Hepburn prevailed winning the third set 15-6. 鈥淪acred Heart played well with strong hitting at the net, but we gave up seven points on missed serves throughout the match,鈥� said coach Curtis Moen.
Next up the team played Kincaid, who was so far undefeated in the tournament. Kincaid showed some great defence digging the ball up, while Sacred controlled the hitting at the net, earning 15 points on their hits.
The Saints won in two straight sets 26-24, 25-23.
In the last round robin match, the team played Humboldt.聽 Sacred played a great first set winning 27-25. Bryan Buzinski showed off some strong hits from the left power position.
In the second and third set Sacred looked tired and lost 12-25 then 8-15.
Sacred Heart narrowly missed making the playoffs as they finished fifth overall. Melville defeated Kincaid in the final winning 25-22 and 25-13.聽 Hepburn won the bronze defeating Humboldt 20-25, 25-23 and 15-1.
鈥淭his was a great first tournament of our season. The team showed they could hit the ball extremely well at the net,鈥� mentioned coach Moen. 鈥淜aeden Hanishewsky did a great job in the back row fighting to keep the ball alive on defense and Cody Doll did an excellent job stepping up for the team filling in as the team setter on Saturday.
The team would like to thank our team sponsors this year for all their support: Ram Industries, Leon鈥檚 Manufacturing, Smith Steel, Premier Cabinets, Parkland College and Yorkton Dairy Queen.
Next game action for the Saints is at the University of Regina on September 18-19.
