Girls and Boys Senior Saints Volleyball teams from École St. Joseph School take silver at Zones

 

École St. Joseph School is celebrating following a double dose of silver from its two senior volleyball teams after they both placed second recently at the 2A Zone Championships. The girls played in Calmar while the boys played in Edson and both teams felt they proved themselves as tough competitors throughout the tournament. Both teams not only made it to the finals but also required three full sets to crown a champ.

“We worked really hard and had a lot of progression this season. We knew we would be facing a couple of strong teams that we had lost to in the past. I feel like we proved ourselves. We didn’t expect that we were going to get up to the finals like we did so it was a bit of a shock. Once we learned we were in the finals we were like, what? We just couldn’t believe it,” exclaimed grade 11 student Brooklynn Harder. Her teammate Cielo Meza echoed the same sentiments. “Throughout the whole season we’ve gotten so much better and when we got that chance to play during the finals, we did really good. We upgraded ourselves.”

Labeled as the underdogs and ranked fifth out of five teams, the girls were pumped to be able to play their way into the finals. “When you get a point it’s just the best feeling in the world because all the girls are smiling and it’s a big adrenaline rush! Even the people on the bench get excited,” smiled Courtney Hennessey. All three teammates said they were grateful to their coaches, Josh Heisler and Brayden Lanctot, for pushing them and making them the best they could be.

On the boy’s side, senior player Davis Granberg said that though his team was small it proved to be mighty. With only seven players on the roster all season long the group had to be resourceful with its time and work extra hard. “Everybody came together this year and pulled through. Right at the beginning of the year, our first tournament, École St. Joseph School had never come out with a finish as strong as we had and after that we just kept on growing.”

He said they knew they would do good in Zones and wanted to show everyone how much they had improved over the course of the season. “In the finals, we kind of knew we would be playing against Mayerthorpe, so we had ideas in mind of how to defend and play against them. We won the first match (best of three). We got ahead early on and then kept the game going. The second set we kind of eased off and there were a couple of iffy calls. About halfway through it we had a time out and regrouped and finished strong. We did lose that game, but we gained momentum for the third set where we ended up being point for point right up until the last two points. It was intense.”

 

He said with this being his final year he wanted to thank his coaches, Doreen Opsal, Kara Mundy, and Adynn Lanctot, for being amazing. “You guys are the best,” he said. Just like Granberg, the mid-November match-ups were also the end of the road for several female players.

“Losing was heartbreaking because at the end we realized that this was going to be our last time playing with the senior girls because they will all be graduating. For us, it means that next season we will have girls looking up to us since we will be seniors, so we must be good role models for them and work hard,” said Hennessey. Congratulations to both teams on an exceptional year!