Sweet Provincial silver.
That's the taste the Annaheim Rebels Senior Boys' volleyball team had in their mouths after the weekend.
The team played at the 1A Boys' Provincial Volleyball Championships in Medstead and Spiritwood November 23 and 24, against some of the best teams in the province and came out of it with a silver medal.
Teams from Fox Valley, Rouleau, Medstead, Nakoda Oyade, Glaslyn, Kincaid, Avonlea, Borden and Bellevue attended the tournament alongside Annaheim.
The Rebels began the tournament with a win over Kincaid/College Mathieu in pool play.
Annaheim won the first set of the match 25-18, lost the second 21-25, but won the last. According to the game notes, the Rebels played tighter and made fewer unforced errors in the match. Both teams fought hard and Kincaid had great blocking, but it wasn't enough to stop the Annaheim hits.
In their second match, Annaheim played Borden, and won two sets to one.
This was a competitive match, it was noted, with Borden showing great blocking and solid defence. But Annaheim's great hitting and power attacks were not to be denied, and the sets ended with scores of 25-19, 22-25 and 25-15.
In their third tournament game, Annaheim played Avonlea, and fell two sets to one.
In the first game, which Annaheim won 25-11, their big hits and power blocks dominated Avonlea at the net, but they lost the second set by a close score of 23-25, and the last by 19-25.
The Rebels bounced back for their final pool game, winning two sets to none over Bellevue.
This set the Rebels up to play Nakoda Oyade, one of the teams they'd beaten at Regionals the weekend before, in their quarter-final match. Annaheim won two sets to none.
This put them up against the host team, Medstead, in the semifinal. With good rallies, serves and middle hits, the Rebels won, again, two sets to none.
In the gold-medal final, Annaheim was up against Fox Valley, and despite a hard-fought match with some great plays from both sides, fell two sets to none by scores of 25-17 and 25-22.
Still, the Rebels came home with some shiny hardware around their necks, claiming the silver medal at the awards ceremony.
Kincaid ended up winning the bronze over Medstead.
