The Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) Elecs freshman girls volleyball team got off to a slow start in their 3-2 loss to the Carnduff Education Complex Tigers at home last Thursday, but the game was played after that day’s classes ended.
“What we usually say is we played on a school day,” said Elecs setter Gemma Bittman. “When we play on a school day we start slow and then we bring it up. But when we’re not on a school day, we play pretty good.”
The Elecs 19-25, 17-25, 25-23, 24-26 and 25-13 five-set defeat against the Tigers may be a sample-size example of how the rookie team’s season is going. The squad of Grade 9 girls began the year with a consolation side win at a Weyburn competition before falling to the Tigers in the final at Carnduff’s home tourney. The girls followed that by winning the Midale junior tournament on Oct. 15.
They’ve “improved 1,000 per cent since the beginning,” said Elecs head coach Tammy Podovinnikoff. “A lot of them have played together before, so that (helped) teamwork I guess. But even just their skill level has improved. If we think back to our first set in Weyburn it was like a different team.”
Podovinnikoff said the recent exhibition game against the Tigers was the fourth or fifth contest between the two clubs with both coming away with victories and defeats. She said the games are always close and present a good challenge, but it seemed like her team was a bit stronger as the match wore on.
Avery McNabb, who also plays setter for the Elecs, said they started out as a low-set team and like the game against the Tigers have picked it up as they became more comfortable on the court. She said if they can equal their play at the Midale junior tourney they should do well in their final two competitions at the Oxbow Prairie Horizon School Black Knights tournament this weekend and the South East District Athletic Association (SEDAA) junior volleyball district finals at ECS on Nov. 10.
“We’re bumping up into the intermediate districts,” said Podovinnikoff, noting they’ll be playing against Grade 9 and 10 squads including the Elecs junior girls team at the SEDAA championships. “Our competition will be tougher, but that’s good. If we went to the lower-end districts we would be playing against girls in Grade 7 and 8 potentially, so that’s why it’s nice to bump up and to host. The juniors decided to host, so we said we would go in with them.”
