The Wildcats senior girls’ volleyball team played in a tournament in Wetaskiwin on the weekend where they won the consolation side of the tournament.
According to Coach Sheri Morbeck, when the girls arrived to this 16-team tournament on Friday afternoon, Sept. 30 they were greeted with the news that two teams had dropped out in the last minute.
“This would now mean we would still compete in all the round robin games, but one game would be for exhibition,” said Morbeck.
The team faced Mayerthorpe first and had an amazing start to the tournament with a 26-24 win in the first set. But, then they gave up point after point in the second set with unanswered errors occurring everywhere, thereby losing the match.
“Regrouping an hour later, the girls again split sets, this time to a group of 20-26 year old alumni players from Ponoka,” added Morbeck.
These players were participating for tournament organizers to help fill in the gaps left by the two teams who had dropped out of the tournament.
“Knowing they could play against ‘powerful elite’ players, the Wildcats gained momentum and went on to sweep LaCrete in straight sets to finish off Friday’s games,” explained Morbeck.
Saturday morning Wildcats faced Pigeon Lake.
Splitting the first two sets against this strong-hitting team forced set three.
“Here we started out poorly, down 9-2 and then 13-4, but finally we gained strength and regained our confidence with Sydney Poapst up to serve and soon we took the lead at 14-13,” added Morbeck. “The girls did a tremendous job focusing on the basics of the game and playing how they knew to play, versus overthinking and trying to change things. Unfortunately Pigeon Lake dug deep too, and we ended up losing 17-15, forcing us to the consolation side of the draw.”
The Wildcats faced Our Lady of Mount Pleasant (OLMP) from Camrose next, an opponent they knew well. The game went to three sets, with Stettler winning the deciding set 15-10.
In the semi-finals, they came up against LaCrete again.
“This team didn’t give up without a fight and had huge crowd support partly from their fellow boys’ team, but we were able to fend them off in two sets,” added Morbeck.
In the finals the Wildcats faced Wetaskiwin.
“Even though the girls were tired, they had to stay focused to put up a good fight against the home town, and prevailed 25-20 and 25-19 to claim the consolation title,” said Morbeck.
Wildcat player Megan Roper was awarded team MVP for the tournament.