They took the long way to get there.
After a slow start at the Saskatchewan Summer Games in Estevan, the Rivers West girls volleyball team finished off the tournament in style as they picked up four straight wins on their way to a silver medal on Saturday.
“Anything is possible, especially in girls volleyball,” coach Jana Friedenstab said. “In any of the games that we lost, we could have had the same matchup two hours later and the outcome would be completely different. That's how close the entire field was.
“The girls kept their confidence up the whole time and I think they should be very proud of themselves and what they accomplished. To earn a medal at the Summer Games is a huge achievement.”
The squad, which featured seven players from the Battleford Volleyball Club Impact 14U team, had an auspicious start to the tournament as they dropped their first two round-robin games.
“In our very first match we missed 13 serves and we only lost both sets by just two points,” Friedenstab said. “That was a tough loss but we were able to make some changes when it came to our positioning and other things that we needed to improve on.
“Once we did that we really picked things up and we started to find our groove with our passing and our service. We still had to take a back door route to get to the gold medal game though, but I wasn't worried too much about that as I was pleased with how we were playing.”
After rattling off three straight wins, including an exciting quarter-final triumph over the Prairie Central region, Rivers West went up against a heavily favoured and undefeated Regina side in the semifinals.
The match ended up being very lopsided as Rivers West cruised to a 25-7 win in the first set and completed the upset with a 25-15 triumph in the second frame.
“Going into the match I told the girls that this was going to be a really tough match,” Friedenstab said. “After they won the first set by that score I thought to myself 'Well I thought it was going to be a little harder than that.'
“The girls were excellent from start to finish. They missed just one serve in the entire two sets and they passed the ball really well. I also think the Regina team may have been looking ahead to the gold medal game a bit as well and we were able to take advantage of that.”
Rivers West impressive run came to an end in the finals against the host South East region as they lost in straight sets (25-11 and 25-13) in a game that took place in front of a lively crowd at Estevan Comprehensive School.
“It was unreal just how noisy it was in there,” Friedenstab said. “For many of our girls, it was the first time that they ever got to play in atmosphere like that.
“South East was just in the zone right from the start. When you have six serves hit the top of the net and trickle into our court, it's just your day.”
