The Falcons doubled down on a chance at provincial glory.
The Foothills Falcons made the most of home-court advantage to win both the senior girls and boys volleyball 4A South Central zone banners on Nov. 20 as each squad booked its ticket to provincials for the first time in four years.
“Lots of people aren’t doing club volleyball (this year) so they’re just trying to finish off their volleyball career as best as they can,” said Falcons girls setter Nyah Ulmer, a Grade 12 student. “It’s so cool, we’ve done really well the whole season and just going up against some of the top teams in the province and being able to be one of the top teams, it’s just such a good feeling.”
In the senior girls zone championship match, the Falcons got past Airdrie's Croxford Cavaliers in four sets after jumping out to an early two-set advantage. Croxford had edged out the Falcons in three-sets earlier in the competition.
“We just worked really hard all season just to prove to ourselves and the team that we can do it and put in all the hard work and make it work,” Ulmer said. “They did beat us earlier (in the tournament) so a big comeback was needed.
“Both teams were tired from a long tournament, but I just think we worked together better and were able to put all the different steps together to make it work.”
Croxford battled back in set three with its season on the line, taking it by a 25-19 count.
“We wanted to just make sure our passing was in place, because if we can pass then we can run an offence and keep them off balance,” said Falcons girls head coach Joanne Schoneck. “All today is, and you saw it with our (Falcons) boys is who wants it more and volleyball is all about momentum swings. We lost that third and we got real quiet, they wanted it a lot more than we did and then it was important in this last game to celebrate every single point.
"On our side, we had numbers, when we came in today we had six games to win and had a clipboard with 6-5-4-3-2-1 to provincials and each game we won we ripped one off and that felt pretty good.”
The seesaw fourth set saw the Falcons rally late to take a 21-17 advantage only to see the Cavaliers rattle off three straight and narrow the score to 23-21. A big hit by Falcon Grace Baker and a pair of miscues at the net then paved the way for the 25-22 result to sew up the zone banner.
“We have a ton of skill on this team and it’s just a matter of it all running at the same time and putting it all together,” Schoneck said. “Just making sure that if something bad happens, you let it go and move on to the next thing because every single player on the court, we need them to be at their top.
“Our goal was, if you look at the person across from you, you need to be as good as or better than your counterpart.”
Provincials has been at the precipice of Falcons girls volleyball with tough zone playoff loses in recent years along with last season not going ahead. Foothills last qualified for provincials in 2017.
“We’ve come of out of our pools first (in zones) and then lost the next day, it’s just heartbreaking,” Schoneck said. “We were determined, ‘no not this time, we’ve got to get this one.'"
Falcons in the zone in final
The Falcons boys flipped the script on a season series that didn't go their way until it mattered most.
The Foothills senior boys took out the league champion Holy Trinity Academy Knights in a five-set thriller to take home the 4A South Central zone championship after getting out to a two-set lead on home-court.
“The whole basis of our season, I was telling them the biggest game of the season is going to be at zones,” said Falcons head coach Jeremy Davies. “If we get to the zone final it’s going to be the biggest game of the season and everything that happens before grooms us and take what we can from it, learn from other teams and what we need to be like.
“But this last game of the season is the most important one.”
Foothills, the second seed out of round-robin, had a somewhat inauspicious start to day two of the competition with a five-set win over Bert Church while the Knights entered the final undefeated in four games.
“We had a tough game in our first match with Bert Church, we beat them in five and it definitely shouldn’t have been that close,” the coach added. “I was honestly a little worried with how we were playing in that match, but as soon as you get to play your crosstown rival HTA no matter who you are you’re going to wake up for that game and the best of your ability is going to shine there.”
Foothills won the first two sets to put the Knights on their heels. In a momentum-driven sport it was a defence first philosophy guiding the Falcons to breakthrough against their foes.
“We were really committed to defence, all of our players were picking up the tips, picking up the digs and we all really elevated,” said Falcons Grade 12 power Ryker Hutchinson. “It’s been brewing for a while against this team and we really just left it all out there.”
The Falcons zeroed in on defending the Knights’ left-side, a big source of their attack, and were able to establish their blocking game in the early going, Davies added.
“Credit to them, they’re a good team and they came back down 2-0,” Davies said. “And in the fifth set, we’ve been in a lot of five-setters and we know it’s a short game and that start is crucial.
“We just needed a good start, even a close start, and we liked our chances down the road.”
Foothills took an early 8-4 advantage in the fifth and deciding set and were able secure the victory with a 4-0 run to make it 15-11 in-front of passionate fan bases on both sides of the stands inside the Falcons gym.
“We knew we were so close we could basically feel it,” Hutchinson said. “It was exhilarating, just a complete rush, I had adrenaline just pumping.”
For Hutchinson, the team's renewed dedication and commitment at practice down the stretch has been central to the Falcons advancing to provincials for the first time since 2017.
“I guess we’re going to Red Deer next week,” Davies said with a laugh. “I’m very proud of these guys and how far they’ve come over the season. And who knows? We’re on a high right now so never know what happens at provincials.”
The 4A ASAA Volleyball Championships run Nov. 25-27 at Red Deer's Lindsay Thurber High School.
For more information go to asaa.ca.
