The Estevan Comprehensive School Elecs junior girls’ volleyball team claimed a third-place finish at their home tournament on Saturday afternoon with a three-set victory over the Carnduff Tigers.
“This was the best we’ve played all year,” said Elecs’ middle Aiden Miller. “We just played our hardest.”
The Elecs jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead in their first set against the Tigers on three points scored during Araya Wheeler’s serve. The home side would bump the lead to 13-7 on a six-point run with Miller serving, but a strong Tigers push back led by a six-point gain on an unbroken serve by Mia Plews brought the score to 13-13. After going point-for-point leading to an 18-16 Estevan lead, the Elecs’ Hallie Hanson broke the game open on a four-point serve to bring the score to 22-16 before the teams finished off the set 25-18 in the home side’s favour.
Carnduff got out to an early 7-1 lead in the second set thanks to Plews and Kendal Waldbauer, but Estevan would eventually even the score at 12-12 on a five-point run during the serves of Kelsey Pastachak and Sammy Wade. Waldbauer helped the Tigers jump out again to a 19-14 lead before Hanson brought the score close again at 23-21. The Tigers won the set 25-22 on Leah MacFarlane’s serve.
Mackenzie Holman, a power with the Elecs who couldn’t play in the home tourney due to an injury, said there was more pressure for the team in their home tournament due to the bigger crowd and higher expectations, but Estevan was determined to make sure they came out with a good showing and managed to bounce back from the second-set loss.
“We get down on ourselves usually (when they lose a set),” she said. “We didn’t this tournament, so it was better.”
With Wade serving, the Elecs jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the deciding third set. Wheeler then helped the home side score another four points to give them an 8-2 advantage. On the Elecs third serve, Pastachak got the team another three points to bring the score to 12-5, before Hanson and Courtney Kanigan finished off the game on their serves securing the home side a 15-9 win.
“We were really pumped up,” said Elecs’ setter and right side hitter Hanson after the third set. “We wanted to win at home.”
Marcel MacFarlane, head coach of the Tigers, said his girls battled really well against Estevan, but the slow start in the third set did them in. He said despite the finish the Tigers showed great competitiveness in the game and in the tourney as a whole, so they should be proud of what they’ve accomplished.
“We’re going to have an opportunity to meet Estevan again on Nov. 12,” said MacFarlane, about the upcoming District Championships this Thursday in Moosomin. “Hopefully we can make some adjustments and be better prepared.”
The Elecs reached the third-place game against Carnduff by placing second in their pool with a 6-2 record in sets played, which set them up for an opening playoff match against the Yorkton Raiders. Estevan bested the Raiders 25-23, 25-17 to earn a semifinal game against the Moose Jaw Peacock Toilers.
Despite a strong point-for-point first set that saw Estevan hold the lead for the majority of play, Moose Jaw prevailed with a late push to win 26-24. The Toilers controlled the play in the second set winning 25-16 giving them a berth in the first-place game against the Lumsden Angels. Moose Jaw took the evenly played final game of the Elecs home tourney on scores of 24-26, 25-18 and 15-10.
“We’ve seen them in Balgonie,” said Toilers head coach Lorne Polupski about the Angels. “They beat us in Balgonie in three sets and we came back, a little redemption here, and beat them in three sets. It’s great for the girls to end on this note.”
Melissa Holman, head coach of the Elecs, said they enter districts on Thursday having come together as a team to play their best volleyball of the season during this home tourney. She said they’ve experienced a tough run this year with injuries, but the girls have risen to the challenge and grown as better all-around volleyball players as a result making a good finish at districts a distinct possibility.
“There has been a huge amount of improvement and that’s what our goal was as coaches,” said Holman. “The girls picked a goal at the beginning of the year and they were supposed to pick something they wanted to work on and as a team most of them chose to work on hitting. Our hitting has far surpassed any goals we could have imagined. We’re hitting a lot better and in more instances.”
