A Spiking Season For Jr. Girls Volleyball
While the boys dominate on the ice, the junior girls attempted to do the same on the court. The junior girls volleyball team had a bumpin’ season this year, with a whopping 11 games to 1 mere loss in regular season play. Our girls are said to be “one of the best teams this school’s ever seen” says coach Jim Crone during a post-game wrap-up. He went on to say that this is a “team who has the ability to get to the WCSSAA final”, something that hasn’t happened in some 15 years at this school.
These are high hopes for such a young group of girls. In fact, the starting lineup consists of 4 grade nines out of the 6 players on the court. While this will be what it may, Crone declared that although the girls may differ in age, they are “a well balanced team, [from] first through sixth in terms of girls on the court, [they’re] all pretty equal”.
The team finished their regular season with an impressive victory against Galt Collegiate Institute. The girls played two ‘nearly perfect’ sets; everybody was serving well, their passing was on point, and the girls were hitting exceptionally. After suffering from a brief mental lapse in the third set, the girls were able to recover in the fourth; with superb passing by Danika Deverill and a monster hit by Lauren ‘Razor’ Reycraft to finish the game with a 25-14 final score.
This win solidified the team’s second place finish in league play and insured them home court throughout the playoffs. The girls faced Forest Heights in a quarterfinal game where they won with the home court advantage. Continuing their winning streak the girls had another victory against Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute winning the match in 4 sets.
At the start of the season, the team decided that their long-term goal would be to get to the WCSSAA final where they will most likely be facing their rivals, Jacob Hespeler. Their prediction was right and on Tuesday February 24th they played against JHSS for the WCSSAA first place title. The girls have always given Jacob a run for their money but have never beaten them. However, coach Crone remained optimistic, ‘if we were to play Jacob ten times, they wouldn’t win all ten times; and we’re due [to win]’.
The team played their hardest and sadly were defeated by the Hawks. The girls lost in 5 sets but didn’t go down without a fight. Maggie McKenzie elaborated on the closeness of the game stating “we’re honestly identical teams, some calls just didn't go our way.” However she remains positive claiming that “We'll get them one day!”. The junior girls should have no regrets! They played an outstanding season and represented the Panther nation proudly.