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Wow what a whirlwind since Monday! I finally have been able to collect my thoughts so here it goes:

Our Sabres varsity girls volleyball team beat the Selkirk Royals on Monday night in the Provincial final to capture gold for the first time ever at the AAAA level. What an incredible experience it was for the team to come out on top at the end of our season!

This season our girls played a lot of amazing volleyball. They battled all season with some of the top teams in the province, including Vincent Massey Trojans, CJS Olympiens and Selkirk Royals. CJS and Selkirk in particular gave us some of our toughest matches of the season. We had a lot of close matches, with wins going both ways, however our girls never managed to clinch the win at the end of tournament playoffs. This resulted in our team finishing either 2nd or 3rd in all four of our tournaments. We also finished 2nd in our league after losing to CJS in the finals. Through every disappointing loss, the girls learned more about our team and how to push ourselves to be better. Our motto was “we bend but we don’t break”. Our goal was to peak as a team at the end of our season.

There were many incredible teams this season, and going into Provincials we knew whatever our match up, we would have a tough road ahead. The girls needed to band together to play their best and leave everything out on the floor. That is exactly what they did and we as coaches are so proud of each and every one of them.

Our first match up in Provincials, for our quarter final game, was against Vincent Massey Winnipeg. They gave us a tough time throughout the match with some well placed shots on offense. This put us down part way through the game 2 sets to 1. Thankfully the girls were able to adjust on defense, and battled back to win the last 2 sets of the match, resulting in a 3-2 win. Scores for the match were: 18-25, 25-19, 24-26, 25-20, 15-13.

Our semi final matchup was against CJS. Our girls were excited to have a chance for redemption against the Olympiens after we lost to them in our SCAC league final. This was another long nail-biter of a match, but ultimately the Sabres came out on top with another 3-2 win. Scores for the match were: 19-25, 25-23, 25-15, 20-25, 15-10.

Our Provincial final on Monday night was another long and hard fought match against Selkirk. Both teams battled back and forth all match with a loud and rambunctious crowd cheering on. The energy in the gym was palpable. In the first set of the match the Sabres were down by 3 points for the majority of the set. Some clutch serving by Callie Andres, and some big blocks by Sienna Driedger, Grace LeClair and Izzy Voth had the Sabres close the gap and ended up winning the first set 25-23. The second set of the match saw the Sabres take an early lead, with some quick kills in the middle by Callie Andres and Grace LeClair. Unfortunately the Sabres then made a streak of unforced errors, which swung the momentum of the set in favour of the Royals. The Royals won sets two and three with scores of 24-26 and 26-28. The start of the fourth set saw some difficulty for the Sabres on serve receive, making it difficult to run an effective offense. The Royals took advantage of this and ran up an 11-6 lead over the Sabres. This could have been a point in the match where the Sabres may have felt defeated, with the Royals up 2 sets to 1 and then up by 5 points in the fourth set, however the Sabres dug deep and refused to give in. Callie Andres went on a 4 point serving streak and Olive Fast was tenacious on defense to keep the ball alive on the Sabres side, allowing the Sabres to claw their way back into the lead. From there the Sabres had some great passes from Taleesa Minnaar and some aggressive attacks through the block by Kiersten Reimer. Callie Andres also became a wall at the net, making it difficult for the Royals to attack. The Sabres won the fourth set 25-19, taking the first set of the match by more than just 2 points. This was a huge momentum shift in favour of the Sabres and gave them great resolve going into the fifth and deciding set. Our team had been in this position twice before during our Provincial run and we were confident we could do it again. The Sabres were fired up and ready to go in the fifth set. The set started off strong with some amazing sets by Izzy Voth to Callie Andres and Sienna Driedger who decisively attacked the ball time and time again, to put the Sabres into a 5 point lead. The Sabres continued to push forward and ahead 8-2 when it was time for the teams to switch sides. The Royals however did not back down and managed to tie the set up 13-13. With the fifth set only going to 15 points, the Sabres needed to tighten up to finish things off. Izzy Voth gave Callie Andres a set in the middle, which Callie placed in the deep corner of the court, making it difficult for the Royals to dig up. Kiersten Reimer was calm and collected going back to serve at 14-13, the Royals sent the ball back over with a deep tip to position four that Sienna Driedger dug up and then got up quickly off the floor as Izzy Voth set her on the outside. Sienna took a quick 2 step approach and hammered the ball off of the Royals block to win 15-13.

Provincial all-star awards were given to Izzy Voth and Callie Andres. MVP was awarded to Sienna Driedger.

A big shout out goes to our “sea of yellow”! Our fans were amazing and loud and we appreciate all the support.

Thank you to my fellow coaches Mickey Sorochuk, Carsyn Peters and especially Johnathan David for all of the hard work they put in this season.

Sincerely,
—
Amy Toews
Steinbach Regional Secondary School
Physical/Health Education Department
Athletic Director
Varsity Girls Volleyball Coach

in: Athletics