Vanier continues boys volleyball roll
Vanier Vikings have emerged as the team to beat through the early part of the Moose Jaw high school boys volleyball league season.
The Vikings improved to 4-0 after a pair of victories over two of their closest competitors this week, with a 3-1 (18-25, 25-12, 25-15, 25-17) win over Cornerstone on Sept. 25 to go along with a 3-1 (25-16, 22-25, 25-18, 25-18) victory against Central on Sept. 27.
Both wins featured Vanier putting their experience and skill to good use – a product of plenty of time playing together for the core crew of veterans.
“It’s been really nice to watch these guys grow,” said Vikings coach Levi Broda. “For a lot of them, it’s their third year with the team so it’s nice to see that their hard work has paid off and they’re coming out strong. There’s still lots of work to do, that’s for sure... the boys are competing hard and chasing down the ability to say that we’re playing consistently good. Something like consistency in volleyball is tough to achieve but we’re well on our way to doing that.”
Vanier’s ability to pass the ball has been one of their keys in the early going, as they’ve been able to get the ball to the front row in good shape and create plenty of offence from there. Then there’s their overall depth – the Vikings won the junior boys volleyball league last season and graduates from that program have moved up to senior and heavily bolstered the Vanier roster.
“We have a roster of 10 and we can put any guy in any time and it’s really exciting to be able to coach a team like that,” Broda said. “Not only for energy, but guys to come in off the bench and be a spark plug out there and really change the tide of games.” That’s likely going to be important down the road as the two four-game wins showed in part. Both Central and Cornerstone have also put together some impressive showings in the early going, something Broda expects will keep things interesting all season long.
In other boys league action Tuesday, Avonlea defeated Peacock 3-1 and Central took a 3-0 (25-11, 25-13, 25-23) over Briercrest Christian Academy. In Thursday’s other game Avonlea downed BCA 3-0 (25-12, 25-21, 25-13).
In girls league play on Tuesday, Vanier defeated Cornerstone 3-0 (25-14, 25-16, 25-15) and Briercrest downed Central 3-0 (2520, 25-13, 25-17). Games on Thursday saw a pair of sweeps as Peacock rolled past Cornerstone 25-18, 26-24, 25-15 and Vanier defeated Central 25-11, 25-9, 25-7.