The R.F. Staples girls earned bronze as 18 teams took to the courts at the Rotary Spirit Centre Nov. 7 to battle for regional junior high school volleyball supremacy and a chance to play in the zone tournament this week in Barrhead.
R.F Staples hosted the Pembina Hills Public Schools Regional Volleyball Tournament Nov. 7, with not only the R.F. Staples girls finishing third, but the Pembina North Community School boys taking the silver in the boys division.
The R.F. girl took on teams from St. Mary School, PNCS, Swan Hills and Barrhead, coming out second in their pool, behind only PNCS. Clyde’s Eleanor Hall School girls were in another pool and finished third before bowing out in the first round of playoffs. St. Mary finished fifth in their pool.
“We’ve just progressed step by step since the beginning,” said coach Tracey Bruens. “In the beginning they didn’t know where to go in rotation and now they were in the gold medal game.”
The thought of a medal hadn’t even crossed her mind at the beginning of the season, she said.
“There was a big learning curve there, but they pushed through with our processes and they learned a lot as they went,” said Bruens.
Just last week, she said, the team had a little get-together and have truly come together just in time to enter the tournament.
“They’ve really come together as a team and we couldn’t be happier,” said Bruens.
“They’re playing well, they’re playing their game. Regardless of who is playing on the other side, they’re playing their game.”
Christopher Pechanec from PNCS taps the ball over the net in a game against R.F. Staples.
On the boys side, PNCS lost a heartbreaker in the third set of the final match against Neerlandia Public Christian School and it came down to the final point.
PNCS placed first in their pool, while the St. Mary boys placed third. The R.F. Staples boys finished second in Pool B while Eleanor Hall finished fourth.
St. Mary and R.F. Staples faced off in the quarterfinals with R.F. Staples coming out on top. PNCS then beat R.F. Staples to go on to the gold medal match against NPCS.
All three sets were exceptionally close with PNCS losing the first set, but winning set two and losing the third and final set 17-15.
Barrhead Composite High School will host the zone tourney Nov. 14.
