The Falcons soared with the best in Alberta to mark their provincial return.
The Foothills Falcons advanced through to the quarterfinals after a strong showing in pool play at the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association 4A Girls Volleyball Championships, held Nov. 25-27 in Red Deer.
“These girls were ready,” said Falcons head coach Joanne Schoneck. “Our first game was kind of slow when we came out against St. Francis, but we just started to roll and I think a lot of it was just confidence.
“Once we got that first win in that second set they started to believe they could do it. From then on, of course we had some up and down games, but in general they just worked together.”
The Falcons went 2-2 in the Red Pool with victories over St. Francis and Harry Ainlay along with losses to Hunting Hills and William Aberhart.
The latter was a three-set thriller (25-21-19-25, 9-15) against the top team out of the Calgary zone.
“That game against Aberhart was probably our best of the tournament,” the coach added. “Coming in, we had won two matches to that point and lost one and if we could have won that we would have had a shot at first.
“We came out that first match and really dominated them and they started to figure us out. A lot times teams underestimated us I think just historically our zone tends to be a little weaker.”
The Falcons advanced through to the playoff round for a quarterfinal showdown versus the host Lindsay Thurber Raiders. The Red Deer school took it in two sets (25-20, 25-23) and went on to win the provincial banner.
“That Lindsay Thurber team was ready to go and mine were a little bit nervous, that first game our passing was a little bit off and we just didn’t quite have the same flow we normally do,” Schoneck said. “Again, that’s just nerves and you’re playing the host team, that’s their school and they have a lot of familiarity with it.
“Our second game we were really close, everything got a little bit stronger and just couldn’t quite hit balls, there were a lot out at the back.”
The ASAA volleyball provincial field was dropped down from 12 to 10 teams this go around as a pandemic related measure to limit the number of competitors.
“There was two pools of five and to come out of provincials you had to be top two so it was quite a different feel this year from normal,” Schoneck said. “Normally there’s seeding done and you don’t necessarily hit those top teams, possibly ever.
“Without seeding done it was just everybody’s game so we had no idea what we were going into… We knew we had our hands full and I didn’t know if we were going to win a match, to be honest with you.”
The host team took gold, Bowness earned silver and William Aberhart rallied for bronze.
Schoneck said the provincial competition, the team’s first since 2017, was an amazing reward for the squad’s hard work during a challenging season and for three-year members of the senior team Nalaina Funk and Brooklyn Knoch, in particular.
“Two years ago I had two of them in Grade 10 at the time and we were in zones and were first in our pool and Chestermere came and beat us and it was so disappointing because that year we had hope and then to not go and have last year off,” Schoneck said. “For those two especially, but for all the girls it was a big year and just a little bit of reward for a hard-fought year.
“We did have a fairly successful year and this will be a memorable one for sure.”
Also in Red Deer, the Falcons boys finished fifth in the Red Pool with an 0-4 record with straight sets losses to Strathcona, Lindsay Thurber, Winston Churchill along with a narrow three-set defeat to Salisbury Composite.
William Aberhart won gold, Hunting Hills took silver and Strathcona earned bronze.
In Cold Lake, the Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School Spartans had an excellent pool play performance to advance to the quarterfinal round.
"None of the players had any provincial experience and that was a really good bonus going into it," said Spartans head coach Dale Roth. "It was nice to be back competing at that level, that was really significant for the players to feel like there's some sort of COVID-normalcy."
The Spartans finished second in the Navy Pool, posting victories over Holy Redeemer, Matthew Halton, the host Assumption High along with a loss to Calgary Christian.
"The boys really came together on Thursday, the first day of competition," Roth said. "We had a bit of a warm up match then played Assumption, the host school, and really found a nice stride. The games were tight, but they did well in clicking."
STS had its run halted in a two-sets loss to Edmonton Christian, the eventual silver medallists, to finish fifth overall.
Spartans Grade 11 Adrian Obrejanu earned the sportsmanship pin at the tournament in recognition of his decorum on the court.
La Crete won gold with JR Robson claiming bronze.
For more information on the ASAA provincials go to asaa.ca/championships
