By Nathan Kanter

Vikings prevail in all-Battlefords final

Oct 31, 2016 | 10:34 AM

It was an epic final that came down to the wire between two cross-town rivals on Saturday afternoon in the junior girls volleyball north conference playoffs.

The Comp Vikings and JP II Crusaders found themselves in a deadlock late in the third and deciding set before the Vikings went on the run they needed in order to pull away and get the narrow victory, 15-11 in the final set.

“It was back and forth. It was close all the way, point by point,” Vikings head coach Jeff Gibson said after his team went undefeated in the tournament. “I’d like to think that these girls have been through these types of matches before in their club season last year and the year before.”

“When it came right down to it in the end, they made it happen. Had some good service at the end, made some key plays at the net, and I just think that our experience ended up being a key factor.”

The Vikings team is a Grade 9 only team, which Gibson said is rare. They’ve won five of six tournaments this season, and the one they didn’t win was a Grade 9 and 10 tournament in Prince Albert, where they finished third.

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Combine that with many of them playing club for the past three seasons, and you’ve got a tough matchup for JP II, who hosted the tournament.

“Their offence is pretty strong, so we battled and battled and battled,” Crusaders head coach Janet Benoit said. “They are very powerful when it comes to hitting. We blocked well but our offence – we’re not as strong hitters yet and that’s just because [we’re] younger. The kids I had on the court in the final were a lot of Grade 8s.”

A couple of the powerful Viking hitters that stood out were Jolene Cooke and Joelle Mercer.

Cooke is a left side hitter and Mercer plays the right side. Both were instrumental in the success of the Vikings, along with both setters, Chloe Lavalee and Kiara Clarke.

“[Cooke] is very aggressive and swings hard and she has really come into her own in this particular season,” Gibson said. “She’s swinging probably the most successfully she has in all her years of playing volleyball. She’s one of our best hitters … [and] Mercer is a very strong hitter.

“Clarke and Lavalee are very skilled and quick. They consistently set up our big hitters,” Gibson continued. “Clarke, our fastest player, served really well all day. She’s been responsible, time and time again, for going on long scoring runs for us. Her serve is one of the hardest I’ve ever seen and it’s so consistent.”

While all of those Vikings standouts are Grade 9s, the Crusaders team is made up of seven Grade 8s and five Grade 9s. In the final, Benoit mostly had four Grade 8s on the court and just two Grade 9s.

But she said she’s seen a lot of improvement over the course of the season.

“Having those Grade 8s come to high school, it’s a big adjustment,” Benoit said. “Some of them have played club but…it’s been a huge learning curve for those Grade 8s. But they’re really coachable kids so it’s been good how much they’ve improved this year.”

Gibson has noticed the improvement from the Crusaders as well, as these two teams have faced off two other times earlier this season. Each time, the matches got closer and closer.

The Vikings won the first match fairly easily, then the Crusaders lost in two close sets last weekend in Meadow Lake, before this weekend it went to the third and deciding set.

“Credit to the coaching over there and some good hustle and good defence out of JP’s part,” Gibson said. “They played really, really well.”

By finishing in the top three of the north conference playoffs, both teams have qualified for regionals this upcoming week in Medstead. Regionals begin on Thursday and will feature eight teams.

After regionals, the season ends, as there are no provincial championships in junior volleyball.

Gibson said he wants to focus on serving heading into next week, which was lacking in the final despite it typically being a strength.

“The last couple of weekends we’ve struggled with our service game. So that’s the biggest thing right now,” Gibson said. “Other than that, it’s a pretty solid team. There’s not a whole lot to be working on.”

Benoit said practice this week will be about reiterating the little things.

“Basically continue to work on what we’ve already established and a few other little things that I noticed that we maybe can improve on,” she said. “We’ve got two more practices to fine tune a few things, so hopefully we meet them again at districts.”

Nathan Kanter is battlefordsNOW’s sports reporter and voice of the Battlefords North Stars. He can be reached at Nathan.Kanter@jpbg.ca or tweet him @NathanKanter11