The YRHS senior boys鈥� volleyball tournament wasn鈥檛 very kind to the Sacred Heart Saints this past weekend as the Saints played hard but managed just two set wins throughout the entire tournament resulting in a last place finish.
鈥淲e won a couple of sets but we had a rough weekend overall,鈥� offered Sacred Heart head coach Curtis Moen, adding that the Saints were without grade 12 veteran setter Kade Johnson for the entire tournament. 鈥淲e were missing our main setter 鈥� Kade Johnson 鈥� this weekend, so we had Cody Doll filling in as setter and he did a good job filling in in that spot, but it鈥檚 always difficult to adjust when you鈥檙e missing your setter.鈥�
The Saints opened the tournament up on Friday with a straight sets loss to Oxbow 10-25, 16-25. They then put together their best set of the tournament, knocking off EMG/Kincaid 25-20 in the first set before getting crushed 5-25 in the second set.
The third set saw Sacred Heart stumble at times, resulting in a 9-15 third set defeat to one of the top teams in the tournament before falling in straight sets for the second time on the day, this time losing Estevan 19-25, 25-27, in their final game on Friday.
Saturday saw Sacred Heart come out strong against Moose Jaw Peacock in both sets in their final round robin game, but a weak finish resulted in two more set losses, 18-25 and 20-25 to finish the round robin in fifth place in Pool B.
Their fifth place finish meant that the Saints had to play the fourth place team from Pool A 鈥� the YRHS Raiders 鈥� in a playoff play-in match.
The two Yorkton squads proved to be very evenly matched with the Saints dropping the first set to the Raiders 27-29.
Sacred Heart then came out firing in the second set, taking control early with an 8-2 lead and although the Raiders managed to tie it at 15 later in the set the Saints did not falter, taking the second set 25-23.
A third set saw the two teams continue to play one another tough, however the Saints came up just short, falling 15-12 in the third set. 鈥淭hat final game against the Regional, It was a good game,鈥� said Moen. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e going to lose then that鈥檚 a great way to do it, with a very close three set game.
鈥淭he boys put 100% into it and they left everything on the court. They played well but we came up just short in that final game.鈥�
The Saints will now take the following weekend off in order to rest for the following weekend, November 20-21, when they welcome Melville Comprehensive, Esterhazy, Fort Qu鈥橝ppelle, Kamsack, Moosomin and Carlyle to the Halo Dome for 2015 SHSAA 4A East Region playoffs. The top three teams will advance to the 4A Provincials in La Loche later in the month.
