The senior girls finished their season last weekend placing third in Central Alberta 3A zones hosted in Lacombe.
Though it wasn’t the outcome that the team, which was undefeated heading into zones, was hoping for, coach Jeff Anderson said the girls bounced back from a tight semifinal game and made the best of the situation.
“They played a little flat Friday but Saturday morning they were just outstanding,” said Anderson. “When they came up against the team in the semifinal they started making little mistakes. I think just a bit of nerves, you know like ‘wow, we’re this close and we’re going to the finals.’ Unfortunately they couldn’t work through the nerves to get the positive results.”
The team lost in a three-set match to the Stettler Wildcats but went on to take bronze against Sylvan Lake.
Anderson said he’s disappointed that the team, undefeated until that point, lost the chance to play because of one game. “I don’t approve of that in zone play, but I’ll have to try harder this year to get it changed,” he said of taking his concern to the league. It’s something he said happened last year to the Lacombe Composite Rams, who took zone title this year.
“It was a character game,” he said of taking third place. “That was the best we could do with the results that happened. … we never got to play Lacombe this year and I watched them this weekend and I honestly thought we could have matched up against them very well,” he said.
“Overall the girls were outstanding. Their leadership and teamwork they brought all the way through even after losing the semifinals. They bounced back and played strong together as a team and that’s really all I ask as a coach.”
Though finished for the season, he said many of the girls are looking at joining club ball in Sylvan Lake, with a couple of members’ sights set on playing at a college level.
The team did take the Chinook’s Edge School Division banner after defeating Olds High School, the southern champs for the division, Nov. 15. The scores were 25-8, 25-19 and 25-21 with a fourth played and won at 25-18.
