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ECS boys volleyball team loses three games in home tournament

Despite coming up short against a tough Melville squad during the quarterfinals, the Estevan Comprehensive School’s senior boys volleyball team displayed moments of greatness and an overall improvement on the defensive end during their volleyball tou
ECS Elecs boys volleyball Brett Messer

Despite coming up short against a tough Melville squad during the quarterfinals, the Estevan Comprehensive School’s senior boys volleyball team displayed moments of greatness and an overall improvement on the defensive end during their volleyball tournament over the weekend.

“Defense was a big focus during practice this past week,” said Nathan Johnson, head coach of the team, after losing to Melville on Nov. 1. “I’m quite happy with that.”

Less than 24 hours prior, the Elecs finished the day off with a win against Kipling and a loss against Weyburn.

The Elecs’ first matchup on Saturday was against the Moose Jaw Vanier Vikings, who landed multiple spikes and ultimately ran away with the first set. Things were looking very similar during the second set as the Vikings appeared to gain momentum toward victory, but a huge hustle play by Jarret Daoust, who jumped over the Elecs’ bench to keep the ball in play, helped turn things around in their favour quickly. They closed the set with a 25-19 victory.

A deciding third set to 15 was a back-and-forth affair that the Vikings ultimately ended up winning, 15-13.

The Elecs went on to face the Melville Cobras a few hours later, who won gold later that night against Oxbow.

Melville ran away with a victory, defeating the Elecs in two sets.

“There are some very good teams here,” Johnson said. “Melville did a lot of things right and it’s hard to get the ball on the floor against them.”

He also noted the occasional missed serves. A mistake, he said, is okay when not repeated twice in a row. Unfortunately, over the course of the weekend, that did happen several times.

“Our focus is tough serving, so there are going to be some misses when we do that,” Johnson said. “Our other philosophy is that we can’t miss two in a row as a team, so if you missed one or the guy before you missed one, we have to make sure the next serve goes over the net.”

He acknowledged the team’s youth, noting the seven Grade 10s on the roster, and stressed that it ultimately doesn’t shape a team’s success or failure, but does factor in slightly.

“It’s a process to get back up to the levels of Melville and Weyburn,” Johnson said, adding he thinks they’ve greatly improved since the beginning of the year.