Spirits win girls volleyball championship Straight-sets win first for Vanier since 1993

Ending a 25-year championship drought, the Vanier Spirits in the Moose Jaw high school girls city volleyball championship held on Tuesday, Nov. 20 at Peacock, overcame a 10-2 deficit in the second set on their way to a 3-0 (25-23, 25-18, 2512) victory over the Toilers and claimed their first title since 1993.

“It feels so amazing! We’ve been working hard the last couple of years and it feels really good to win,” said Vanier captain and Grade 12 student Jenna Meili. “Playing four years of volleyball here and winning is the cherry on the top; it’s awesome. Some of us have been playing together since elementary school... it’s great to be able to come through and leave a legacy like this.”

Given the scope of the game and what was on the line, the Spirits coaching staff knew it was going to take a superlative effort to pull off a win. Thing is, their charges had shown signs all season of being capable of more than their record would indicate, and lo and behold... “We talked a lot about how hard they’d worked all season and coach Brad (Hennenfent) and myself knew that they had it in them if they did the job,” said Spirits coach Leanne Meili. “They didn’t take their foot off the peda; they passed well and served well and just took it too them. The girls just executed beautifully.” While the result was technically an upset – Peacock had finished in first place in the regular season and had taken three wins over Vanier in the regular season and regionals – the results had often been close between the two teams. That gave the Spirits hope and an added level of resiliency when the going got tough. Case in point: the second half deficit and massive rally that turned the match on its heels.

“It was a good ole time-out and ‘let’s go’,” coach Meili said of the change in momentum. “We just had to get back into it; it was point-by-point and doing what we could to get back into it and we did. It was awesome.”

The victory took on added significance a couple hours later when the Vikings boys volleyball team capped off their perfect season with a city championship of their own. It was the first time in Moose Jaw high school sports history that both Vanier teams won the city volleyball titles in the same year.