The Porter Creek Secondary Rams won five of six divisions in last year’s Yukon Volleyball Championships, with the Vanier Crusaders taking the remainder.
However, in this season’s first Super Volley (regular season play of senior Whitehorse high school teams) the FH Collins Secondary Warriors were the ones reaping the joys of victory.
“I don’t think it was very good for anyone on our team,” said Rams’ Krista Mooney. “I don’t think we have a very nervous team; I think the main factor of our loss tonight was we didn’t play as a team - except for the third set.
“In the third set we started passing better, which comes with communication and teamwork.”
The Warriors made it two in a row to start the season, defeating the Rams 25-14, 30-28, 14-25, 25-12 on Friday and the Crusaders 17-25, 25-23, 25-22, 15-25, 15-12 on Thursday, both at home.
After pushing the second set into extra points at 28-28, a couple errors by the Rams - a double hit and a centre line fault - gave away the set.
The Rams looked to be on the road to a comeback in the third set, going up 8-0 with serves from Casey Andrews.
“I think we got too cocky and stopped talking,” said Warriors captain Sara Fabbro-Swizdyrk. “But we came back in the fourth set - that’s what we’re good at, we’re the comeback team.”
That “comeback” quality of the team was best exemplified in last year’s Dawson Invitational, avoiding a loss to the Rams in the finals after facing six consecutive match points. It could also be seen Thursday, beating the Crusaders in five sets after dropping the opener.
“The first two sets we definitely were not covering, but we got way better,” said Fabbro-Swizdyrk. “It was amazing last night, it really boosted our confidence to play against a team like that and win.
“Now we know what we’re up against - their full potential. It gave us a good idea of where they’re going to be later on.”
With her clean sets and consistent play, Warriors setter Lindsay Cahoon was named player of the game on Friday.
“She had a good game and didn’t make any errors tonight,” said Warriors head coach Ken Kuni. “Every one of her sets were bang-on tonight; she gave our powers and our middles lots to play with.
“Without a good setter you cannot be successful in volleyball.”
Kuni is new to the head coaching position for the Warriors’ senior girls, taking over for Jennifer Norris. Last year, coaching the junior girls team, Kuni coaxed his team to victory at the Dawson Invitational Volleyball Tournament in October in the girls 9/10 division.
“These girls are two years older, by and large, so there’s more intensity,” said Kuni. “There’s more planning on my part to make sure we have the tools we need to be successful, and at least last night and tonight the girls did really well.”
No boys’ games were played at the Super Volley because the senior boys teams from FH and Porter Creek were away competing in Vancouver. Check Wednesday’s Yukon News for coverage of the Vancouver tournament.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com