Volleyball season heats up in Pincher Creek

Matthew Halton Junior Hawks

• Junior High volleyball tournament held in Pincher
• Westwinds Boys - Sabres host Eagles
• Westwinds Girls - Sabres host Dragons
• Westwinds Boys - Sabres host Flyers
• Junior Girls - Dragons host Flyers

Junior High volleyball tournament held in Pincher

Host Team: FP Walshe Flyers B team

The FP Walshe Boys and Girls Juniors Pre-season Invitational Tournament was hosted in Pincher Creek on Friday, September 12 and and Saturday, September 13. "F.P. Walshe (School) is under construction," F.P. Walshe Junior A Girls (The Flyers) Coach Mike Bourassa explained.  He said that  although they have facilities that they can use to practice in, it is not optimum to play there. "It hasn't affected the enthusiasm of the players, and it will be great to have the new gym to play in." He expressed thanks to both Matthew Halton High School who hosted the Girls and St. Michael's School who hosted the Boys for working with them on the venue. "We were really pleased with all the help the people from Pincher Creek gave us in order to make this event a success."  The current timeline is that the FP Walshe modernization will be completed in two years.

Scores were not available at press time.  "I can only give you what happened on the girls side," said Flyers Coach Mike Bourassa, who was very happy with the A girls tournament win. "The A girls won against Cardston in the final, two sets to one. It was a really good match." Barassa said that in the tournament on the girls side the A pool had a win for FP Walshe with the Cardston Cougars second and St. Mikes in third place. The B pool had a win for Foremost, then Magrath, with FP Walshe next, followed by Matthew Halton.

Cardston Cougars

The Junior teams are made of grade 8 and 9 students, and it is very early on in the season. "I was really impressed by the level of play for the first tournament of the year," said Bourassa. "It gives myself, and other coaches a gauge on what we have to work on." He said that his team will be in a tournament every weekend through mid November. "We're a busy bunch."  at the time of this publication, the boys scores were unavailable.

JV/SV Boys - Sabres v Eagles

JV sets

25-16 Sabres 

25-19 Eagles 

25-20 Sabres

SV sets

25-9 Eagles 

25-15 Eagles 

25-17 Eagles

\

Livingstone's Boys Sabres hosted Immanuel Christian High School's Eagles on September 15.  It was the home opener for the Sabres.  The Sabres have no grade 12 members this season, so their JV team played both sets.  In the JV sets they more than held their own, winning two of 3.  In the SV sets the older, larger, more experienced, and refreshed Eagles squad enjoyed three victories, but each set was an improvement over the last for the Sabres.  Big spikes from the Eagles.  Big moves from Sabres' Ross Cook, and others. The Sabres played six sets full on, and were a better team at the end of the day than they were at the beginning. Both teams were sportsmanlike, always nice to see.

JV/SV Girls - Sabres v Dragons

JV games

25-22 Dragons

25-15 Dragons

25-15 Dragons

SV games

25-16 Sabres

25-13 Dragons

25-23 Sabres

25-19 Dragons

15-6 Dragons

A classic.  Lundbreck's finest Sabres Girls hosting Pincher Creek's Dragons. This year's Dragons is a hybrid beast composed of St. Michael's and Matthew Halton students.  A long fierce bench.  The Sabres untested, but all girls with grit. 

The first of three JVsets was the closest, but the Dragons won them all, convincingly.  Then came the SV sets, and for the first time in the evening the Sabres rattled to the top, in the first SV game, ahead from the start, winning it 25-16.   Bam.  The Dragons fired up to a boil in the second SV game, firing on all cylinders for a 25-13 win.  Bam.  Down but not out, the Sabres lost an early lead to multiple ties, 17-17, 22-22, to pull it out at the end, for the second SV Sabres win in a best-of-5.  That win came at the price of exhaustion for the Sabres, and it cost them in the next set, which the Dragons won 25-19.  The Dragons continued to roll, and won the final fifth deciding set 15-6.

A great evening of volleyball.

JV/SV Boys - Sabres v Flyers

JV games
25-22 Sabres
25-21 Sabres
25-16 Sabres

SV games
25-12 Flyers
25-15 Flyers
25-10 Flyers

Lundbreck's hardest working team, the Boys JV Sabres, hosted Fort Macleod's F.P. Walshe Flyers at Livingstone school for an evening of volleyball on September 17.  The  Sabres have no senior players, so once again the JV team contested both levels.  In addition, the Sabres were minus two key players for the evening.  At the JV level the Sabres won all three sets, the third played for the fun of it.  In the SV competition the Flyers brought in older seasoned talent.  A great team, the SV Flyers.  The Flyers believe in the almighty spike, and it helped them more than cost them on this night, as they rolled to three convincing victories over the Sabres.

Junior A and B Girls - Dragons v Flyers

On Thursday evening September 18 St. Michael's Junior A and B Girls Dragons hosted their F.P. Walshe Flyers counterparts for 3 sets each of volleyball at the Dale Wentz Memorial Gymnasium.  The A Flyers won two of three sets, with the A Dragons finding their wings in the third set.  The B Dragons dominated the B Flyers in the first set, and then the Flyers surprised by putting in two strong sets.  Ultimately the Dragons won all three sets.

A Dragons vs A Flyers

25-17 Flyers

25-15 Flyers

25-11 St. Michael's

B Dragons vs B Flyers

25-6 Dragons

25-21 Dragons

25-19 Dragons

Upcoming Junior A and B Girls home games*

 (at Dale Wentz Memorial Gymnasium, St. Michael's School)

Tues. Sept 30 - B vs Claresholm 5:00

Thurs. Oct 2 - A & B vs Nanton 5:00

Fri. Oct 10 & Saturday, Oct. 11- Invitational Tournament at Matthew Halton

Tues. Oct 14 - B vs Lundbreck 4:15

Thurs. Oct 21 - Away* Game A & B vs Matthew Halton 4:00 

Tues. Oct 28 - B vs Kainai (TMS) 4:30