Peacock Digs Out Junior Girls Volleyball Championship
It was a determined Peacock Toilers Orange junior girls volleyball team that took to the court on Wednesday evening.
The Toilers dived, dug and jumped their way into key points as they defeated Central Cyclones Gold in two straight sets - 25 - 23 and 25 - 23 - to claim the city league crown.
The game was expected to be close given the regular season saw the Toilers orange team don an almost perfect 8 - 1 record with their only loss going to Central Gold.
A big dive by a Toilers defender took away a sure point for the Cyclones and in the ensuing rally the Toilers snagged the point. It was a major momentum stealer in set two - MJ Independent photo
Scott Ayars head coach of the Peacock Toilers said it was a well fought game.
“Both sides played so well. You have to give it to Coach Brooke and Central for how hard they fought. They were everywhere. Our girls they showed great resilience. They stuck together and the girls on the sideline stuck together. It was an unbelievable victory for us,” Atars said.
He attributed the Toilers’ success on multiple things. Things such as the amount of practice the team put in, the time they put in with club teams and the time they were in the program last season.
Cyclones’ Rylee Weiss attempts to chase down a ball - MJ Independent photo
“They just played so well because of all of the coaching that’s been around them for years.”
He said a lot of hard effort was invested in gaining one point at a time.
“We were saying it’s not about the first 25 points it’s trying to make perfect points. Just like perfect for each time. They took that mentality and never got to rattled. They stuck together and it paid off,” he said.
“Honestly we played some of our best volleyball tonight. I’m so proud of them.”
He described the team as very strong all year but saw lots of improvement in the little things.
It came down to trusting one another defensively and knowing the team’s rotation was a major improvement the Toilers saw.
The team also has been aggressive on the court and has stuck to it when hitting the ball he said.
“It just stayed the same today. We played really hard defensively. We hit hard. We didn’t allow points just to be played out. We tried to finish them early,” Ayars said.
With the majority of the players heading to seniors the Toilers next season will have a large group of new players.
“We’ll see what happens then. I think we have a whole new team next year.”
Central Cyclones head coach Brooke Roy said the Cyclones came to play.
“It was amazing. We played our best volleyball of the year. The girls really came together. We came together. We had a great chat about playing for each other tonight. They played all heart,” Roy said, adding “ It was all hard tonight. On the bench and on the court every single girl showed up for our team tonight.”
The Cyclones had recurring problems.
“We struggled with our focus at times and those little small controllable things on our side of the net. They did very well coming out of those little ruts and I think they really improved that way,” she said.
A ball is just too far to make a diving dig - MJ Independent photo
The team has improved massively over the season.
“It was amazing like thinking of the team we had in the first week and what we had tonight. The work these girls have put in is amazing. Their love for the game just shines through,” Roy said.
She predicted that next year will see Peacock have a great girls program in both the junior and senior ranks.
“We have a lot of talent in the building so we’re looking forward to it.”
