The Oxbow Black Knights captured the Elecs senior boys’ volleyball championship at Estevan Comprehensive School on Saturday with a three set win over the Weyburn Eagles.
“It was a good game,” said Black Knights hitter Carter Macfarlane about the final. “They played really well against us. Some of our guys who don’t hit as well stepped up and played a really good game.”
The Black Knights went down 5-1 early in the first set to the Eagles, but came back to bring the score to 19-17. A strong serve by the Eagles’ Paul Dionne then put Weyburn up 22-17 before eventually finishing with a 25-22 win.
In the second set, the teams went back and forth offensively with Oxbow taking a 13-11 lead midway through on Macfarlane’s serve. After falling behind 18-14, Weyburn’s Spencer Anderson brought the Eagles back into the game on his serve to make the score 18-17. The teams then exchanged points and many good rallies before Oxbow’s Mason Scott’s serve provided the spark needed to get the club a 25-23 win.
The Black Knights jumped out to an early 8-1 lead in the tiebreaker on serves by Macfarlane and Riley Hammermeister. While Weyburn made it close thanks in part to a strong serve by Walker Happ, the Black Knights would hold on to take the final 15-8 with four straight points to end the match coming on Ben Macfarlane’s serve.
“We’ve had lots of matches with Weyburn all year,” said Black Knights coach Mark Kosior. “It was nice to see us win that second set and roll into that third one with the momentum. It makes a big difference going into that third set winning that second one.”
Mike Onstad, assistant coach of the Eagles, said the game was well played by both sides with each team exchanging shots. He said it always ends up being a tough match when Oxbow and Weyburn meet and the difference at the Elecs’ home tourney is the Black Knights pushed more on offence in the closing sets.
“We were not getting the pass up and we were sitting on the defensive rather than being an offensive team,” said Onstad about the decisive third set win by Oxbow. “We did more attacks in our first set, better attacks, and that’s why we won the first one. We didn’t have that for the third one.”
While Oxbow advanced to the final with a 25-16, 25-16 semifinal win over the Melville Cobras, Weyburn made it to the championship through a 25-11, 25-21 semifinal win over the Elecs.
“We wanted to make the final,” said Elecs Luuk Bastiaasen. “We didn’t pass and our scoring was bad and we generally didn’t play good.”
The Elecs went down 7-3 early in the first set against the Eagles with Dionne dominating with his serve. Weyburn controlled the play at the net and continually tipped balls over Estevan blockers to fall in the middle. They eventually won the set with Dionne again controlling play with his serve.
The second set proved an even contest with each team going point-for-point with Estevan going up 12-10 halfway through before Weyburn rebounded to jump ahead 14-13. The Eagles would hold onto the lead and finish the match with a close 25-21 win.
“We struggle a lot with the mental side of the game,” said Elecs’ head coach Nathan Johnson. “Physically we’re capable of playing with them, but they seem to have our number and they did again (Saturday) with the big blowout there in the first set. The second set obviously was a little bit better, but we were lacking some intensity. What the reason is, I have no idea. We couldn’t seem to get up for that game and they took it to us.”
The Elecs have one more invitational tournament in Yorkton next weekend before they host the 5A Regional Championships on Nov. 14. Competing for a provincial berth at regionals will be Yorkton Regional, Moose Jaw Peacock, Moose Jaw Central, Swift Current, Balgonie and a team the hosts are familiar with in Weyburn.
“We’ll be preparing for them,” said Johnson. “They’re running a pretty strong middle attack, so we’re going to work on serving tougher so they aren’t able to set those guys as often. If they are, we’re going to get a few more blockers up to try and stop them. They were very successful and we have to stop those guys.”
