It was a packed house at Carlton’s CPAC gymnasium on Tuesday night for the Sr. ‘A’ Girls Volleyball city finals.
St. Mary defeated Carlton in straight sets 25-17, 25-21, 25-16 to capture the city title.
Marauder assistant coach Kianne Dallman says St. Mary did a good job of taking things one point at a time.
“Our girls do a good job of breaking things up, so not necessarily looking at the end of the match, but looking at every point as individual, trying to break it up and go for little runs at a time, not getting too excited before they have the match under control. They do a really good job of encouraging each other and staying as a collective no matter what’s happening, so if we lose a few in a row, they do a great job of reuniting and then looking forward at the next few.”
All three areas of the bleachers were filled to capacity with spectators supporting both teams. The noise of the crowd could be felt with every point throughout the match.
Dallman says the Marauders did a good job at maintaining their composure and not letting the noise affect their play on the court.
“It’s a lot of these girls’ first (time) playing in the city finals and they’ve done a really good job of trying to stay centered on the court and focused on the court. We even said to our bench, trying to focus on the court and not getting lost in all the loud noises. We did a little bit of it at practice here, trying to recreate it, which you can never recreate a gym like this. We tried to tell our girls just to focus on what they’re doing and then afterwards take it all in. They did a really good job of just staying composed on the court and looking to one another to do that.”
On the other side, Carlton head coach Tori Glynn says playing in front of a packed gymnasium was extra special for the graduating players on the Crusader roster.
“It’s so much fun and (for) the Grade 12s that we have on our team it’s such a special event for them as well. We have such a nice facility and it’s nice to host and a great experience, a learning experience and we’re looking forward.”
Despite the setback for the Crusaders, Glynn says the game shows the team what they need to improve on heading into the regional tournament next month.
“We had conversations going into this evening and we talked about what our process was going to be and our outcome goal. We’re obviously gearing up toward regionals and it’s always great to be able to play in a competitive game so close to that regional tournament. We’ll have a chance to use this as a good learning experience. We have a couple of tournaments coming up that we can take some of the things that we want to work on from this game and implement them there and we’re looking forward to regionals in North Battleford.”
The Senior ‘A’ Boys Volleyball city final is scheduled for Wednesday at St. Mary beginning at 7:15 p.m.
