It seemed appropriate that the Lindsay Thurber Raiders and Hunting Hills Lightning met in their final match of the provincial high school boys’ 4A volleyball championships at LTCHS Saturday afternoon.
The cross-city rivals faced off for seventh place with the Raiders recording a 25-17, 27-25 victory.
“I think it made the game more meaningful,” said Raiders head coach Terence McMullen. “If we met someone else we may not have cared as much.
“I know that last set was the best set against Hunting Hills all season in terms of both teams playing their best volleyball for an entire set. It was a good way to end the year as we had to really work to win it.
“I know for our Grade 12s that was the way to end the year, on a winning note. They will remember their last match as it was a positive for them. I’m happy for those guys.”
Although they came into the tournament with medal aspirations both Red Deer teams finished close to where they were seeded. The Raiders came in in sixth and the Lightning seventh.
“We would have liked to finish higher, but we came in seventh and only dropped one spot, the same for Thurber,” said Lightning head coach Trevor Pikkert. “It says a lot about Red Deer volleyball.”
Neither Red Deer team had high expectations of upsetting any of the top four teams.
“Those top four are above the rest of us,” said Pikkert. “If they lost before the semifinals it would have been a real upset. It was like men against boys.”
Still the Raiders were disappointed following their 3-1 quarter-final loss to the Western Canada Redmen of Calgary on Friday.
“The guys were very disappointed and it took a while to get back into it today, but this win will bring things back a little bit,” said McMullen. “This wasn’t the way we hoped to finish, but it was a good way nonetheless.”
The Raiders didn’t look sharp Saturday morning as they lost 19-25, 25-21, 13-15 to the Jasper Place Rebels in the fifth-place semifinal.
“It was a tough match and we weren’t mentally 100 per cent into it,” said McMullen. “Our best players didn’t have their best game. Jasper Place is a solid team and they wanted it right off the bat and were hungry for it. We weren’t and it took a while to get into it.”
The Lightning dropped a 16-25, 22-25 decision to the Bev Facey Falcons of Sherwood Park in the other semifinal.
“We just weren’t sharp against Facey,” said Pikkert, whose team lost to Grande Prairie 3-0 in the quarter-finals Friday. “We made 16 errors in the two games. You can’t win by hitting the ball out.”
But the Lightning were able to shake that off and played well against the Raiders, despite feeling they didn’t get any breaks from the officials.
“It was good to see they played well,” said Pikkert. “I’ve been telling them all season to just play their best and enjoy it. It was a tough finish with all the stuff which was beyond our control, but the guys played tough and battled. They can hold their heads high as they showed a lot of character. The guys did what they could, that’s the way you want to go out.”
The Lightning were a relatively young team and Pikkert is excited about the future.
“I had six Grade 10s on the roster this weekend, and this gives them a lot of experience. I’m excited about the future as only good things can happen.”
Although he didn’t talk about it, McMullen has to be excited as well as the LTCHS Grade 9 Black team posted an 45-0 record this season, winning five tournaments and the Central West Junior high championship.
Jasper Place downed Bev Facey 29-27, 26-24 in the fifth-place match.
The Grande Prairie Tomahawks stopped Dr. E.P. Scarlett of Calgary 25-20, 22-25, 25-20, 25-23 in the final.
In semifinal action Grande Prairie beat Harry Ainlay of Edmonton 28-26, 25-16, 25-21 while Scarlett edged Western Canada 25-14, 23-25, 25-22, 23-25, 16-14.
Western Canada stopped Ainlay 26-24, 30-32, 25-23, 21-25, 15-8 in the third-place match.
Sir Winston Churchill of Calgary beat Foothills of Okotoks 25-18, 25-17 in the consolation final, which gave them ninth place. Churchill downed Chinook of Lethbridge 25-15, 25-10 and Foothills beat Sturgeon 25-13, 14-25, 15-12 in the semifinals.
Sturgeon beat Chinook 26-24, 18-25, 15-13 to take 11th place.
Lord Beaverbrook stopped Calgary rival William Aberhart 25-21, 22-25, 16-14 to take 13th place.
drode@www.reddeeradvocate.com