Spirits Slip By Toilers To Claim City Crown
The Vanier Spirits are the senior girls Moose Jaw city league champions.
Something easy to say but the title did not come easy. The Peacock Toilers did not hand it over without a fight. The sets were close and could have gone either way.
The Spirits would win three out of four sets with scores of 25 - 23, 24 - 26, 29 -27 and 25 - 22.
Vanier Spirits head coach Aly Bell said the game was a tightly fought match.
“Tonight was awesome. Peacock came ready to play. It was a battle point for point. Yeah it was awesome. You couldn’t have asked for a better final,” Bell said.
It was a game that saw the Spirits take a commanding lead in the first set only to see the Toilers battle back.
“We struggled then for sure but I’m happy we were able to come back in the end though,” she said.
The Spirits put in a major effort.
“We fought. We battled really hard. That’s the way it’s been every game all year and every tournament. We did the same thing tonight. I can’t be anymore happy with the girls than I am.”
The Spirits now head to Regina for regionals this Saturday as they hope to qualify for the provincial 4A championship tournament.
“It was awesome. You know we had good battles all year long and it could have gone either way,” Lorne Polupski co-coach of the Peacock Toilers said.
“There was a few little breakdowns. We were down 17 - 9 in the first set but we came back…the third set we couldn’t put the game point away. It was 25 - 24 and we hit it out of bounds,” Polupski said, adding “they were just little breaks that could have gone either way. You know it was just great volleyball.”
Breaking Vanier’s dominant serve in the first helped the Toilers mount an almost successful comeback.
“They’ve got a couple of girls that can serve pretty hard. They’re pretty tough. I know we passed really well for the most part…for what we did do and what we got our girls played awesome,” he said.
“It’s the best entertainment in town tonight.”
Asked if he was disappointed with the result Polupski said he wasn’t.
“We came in here knowing they’d won both matches this year. We knew we could beat them. We thought we could beat them. And they’re the better team obviously they got gold. We worked our butts off we just need a couple of breaks here and there.”
Despite the loss the Toilers come out of the city league on a high as they strive for 5A provincial gold.
“This is great. This is a great night. We played great…going into regionals this weekend I would love to see us top two or three.”
Having an automatic bye into the provincial 5A championship tournament as the host team Polupski said the team would still like to win their way into the tournament.
“We’re going there to win. We want to play our way into the medals…it’s going to be a battle. But you know what these kids have got a lot of heart. I love these girls.”
MJ Independent will be covering the 5A provincial senior girls volleyball championship tournament.
