Vanier sweeps Avonlea in boys volleyball action

The Vanier Vikings apparently want nothing to do with the dogfight for second place taking place behind them in the Moose Jaw high school boys volleyball league.

The Vikings improved to 5-0 on the season with a 3-0 (25-17, 25-15, 25-18) victory over the Avonlea Eagles on Oct. 10, moving two wins clear of the three teams battling for second – Central (4-2), Avonlea (3-3) and Cornerstone Christian School (3-3). “We’re pretty happy, we made a lot of errors tonight but we were able to come back,” said Vikings senior middle Riley Follensbee. “We knew what we needed to do and bounced back each time.”

With things so close among the teams behind them, staying out of the fray while throwing a wrench into the mix themselves was part of the plan, seeing how the three lower teams are all tied with 3-2 records heading into play that night.

“They were on a three-game win streak so we wanted to slow that down, and we’re on a streak ourselves so we wanted to keep it going,” Follensbee said. “We definitely want to keep rolling and do everything we can to stay in first.”

Vanier’s success has largely been the product of experience – they took the court with an veteran-laden team last year and almost everyone returned, which has led to them dropping only two sets through their first five matches this season.

“It comes from experience, we only lost our setter from last year since he was in Grade 12,” Follensbee said when asked about the key to their undefeated record. “Then we picked up the setter from last year’s (city champion) junior team, so that helps with passing and knowing where to be and everything.”

The Cyclones took sole possession of second place in the other game that evening, as they downed Cornerstone 3-0 (25-19, 25-20, 25-21) at Central.

In girls league play, Cornerstone picked up their first win, defeating over Central 3-1 (25-25, 25-17, 15-25, 25-21) to improve to 1-5; the Cyclones dropped to 1-6.

Peacock leads the girls standings with a 6-0 record, two wins better than Vanier at 4-1.