The Carnduff Education Complex Tigers fell to the host team in the semifinals of the Estevan Comprehensive School Elecs’ senior girls volleyball tournament last Saturday, which was an achievement that shows the club is moving along the right path.
“Estevan, they’re a big team,” said Tigers coach Jackie Verity. “They’re a 5A team against our (3A) girls (and) we’re a young team, so I’m quite happy with the way we finished.”
The Tigers lost five seniors from last year’s squad to graduation and only have one Grade 12 athlete on their roster this season. The team also employs three Grade 11s with the majority of their players coming from the Grade 10 class.
After beginning the season by winning a bronze medal in the Tier 3 division at the University of Regina Cougars Hank Lorenzen Fall Classic Volleyball Tournament the weekend of Sept. 10, the Tigers jumped out to a great start in Estevan winning eight of 12 sets for a third-place finish in the Elecs’ tourney round robin. The club followed that up by besting the sixth-place Midale School Marauders before falling 25-21, 25-19 to the Elecs in a back-and-forth semifinal match.
“We don’t have those six big players on the court at one time, so they really have to work together as a team,” said Verity. “That’s what I’ve seen already from them.”
Verity said she would call this season a rebuild, which is apt to happen every few years as players move on to post-secondary education. She said the team hasn’t been able to log much time together on the court apart from practice and their two tournaments, but they’re playing with a lot of heart and once they get in some more action the results will only get better.
“We go to Lumsden (this) weekend and we should see a lot of good teams there,” she said. “It’s 18 teams, so we’ll see a lot of games.”
