Cougars Spike Past Peacock

It was a hungry and determined Briercrest Christian Academy senior boys Cougars that stepped onto the volleyball court on Tuesday evening.

The Peacock Toilers by contrast seemed to be timid falling victim to the Cougars’ attack.

In the end the Cougars took the game in three straight sets against the Toilers.

The three set scores were 25 - 15, 25 - 19 and 25 - 17 in Briercrest’s favour.

The Cougars were digging deep to make plays - MJ Independent photo

“I think the guys played well. They came together as a team,” Cougars head coach Grant Poettcker said about the Cougars’ Tuesday evening effort.

Poettcker said the team has a wide range of experience.

“We have a lot of guys who are learning the game but we also got some really experienced players who have a lot of talent. So it’s quite the (experience) level,” he said.

Despite having the upper hand on the Toilers Poettcker said he had a lot of respect for them.

“I think anytime you play against Peacock it’s an opportunity to practice your skills. They are great competitors they’ve got some high level players on that team too.”

He said the Cougars strong serves were key to the victory.

“We won the serving battle tonight. Which is always a challenge. I’ve been challenging our guys to get their serves in the court and we did that. We had the advantage in that for sure.”

Meshing the Cougars into a cohesive team is the biggest challenge for the team.

“Integrating the whole squad together. We’ve got a whole bunch of grade nines and a bunch of senior players so knitting everybody together, coming together as team, playing for God’s glory and representing our school is a lot of challenge and a lot of fun,” Poettcker said.

He said mixing players together, going on road trips and going to tournaments together was key to integrating the Cougars.

“Making sure we pray together. Making sure we work together. Partner up with different guys doing drills. Making sure everybody shows love that’s what it’s all about. That’s what sport provides us with an opportunity to do.”

Peacock Toilers head coach Jacques Borgeaud said it just wasn’t the team’s night.

“It wasn’t a good showing unfortunately and with a team like that it’s not going to go very well. We made a lot of errors like we did this evening,” he said.

Asked about the seemingly slip in the Toilers play from last Thursday’s great showing against the Vanier Vikings Borgeaud said injuries hit the team.

The Toilers have had to make adjustments due to the injuries.

“We are trying to reset our team and find what will work right now. The guys are more than capable but we’re a step behind in where we would like to be right now.”

He said the Cougars were a good team and played well.

Asked what the Toilers are going to work on in practice he said consistency and push ourselves to play better.”

“We’ve got to keep improving everyday and we have to ensure we’ve got the right mindset to do that everyday.”

One area of the Toilers improved in was communication skills as there is less steps between players as there was in the Thursday evening game versus the Vikings.

“We’re trying to adapt your system. We need to be louder. We need to be better.”