The Sacred Heart Senior Girls Volleyball team took part in the 32 team University of Regina Autumn Classic High School Tournament this past weekend. With a deep pool of top provincial volleyball talent and girls staying home for commitments to the soccer team, the Lady Saints faced their first big challenge of the season at the U of R. The young Saints squad stepped up and took home the consolation championship in one of the best tournaments of the year.
Sacred Heart began tournament play in a very tough pool losing three matches in a row to Major Pratt of Russell, MB, Vanier of Moose Jaw and Sheldon Williams of Regina, effectively ending all hope of advancing to the A Side playoffs after round robin play.
Coach Perry Enns says "Even though we placed fourth in our pool I was very happy with the way the team played. We were able to get up to 18 or 19 pts against every team so they were all close matches." With young players filling holes on the team and tough competition the three straight losses could have grown into much more of a hole on Saturday. Instead the young Saints rallied and after a loss to open the day, ended the weekend with two straight wins in what was an impressive showing of determination.
Saturday the Saints were placed into Tier Two and the first match of the morning the Lady Saints faced O'Neill High School of Regina losing another close match 24 - 26 and 18 - 25. The Saints then defeated Gull Lake 25 - 10 and 25 - 19 to advance to the B-side Semi Finals. In the Semi's SHHS faced Invermay winning 27 - 25 and 25 - 18 to advance to the final. Riding a two match win streak Sacred Heart faced Miller High School of Regina winning 25 - 19 and 25 - 23 to win the B - side Championship.
Enns says "I was extremely happy with the play of our young team. The team showed so much improvement from the first match to the end of the tournament. "I was impressed with our Grade 10 athletes who played very well and showed a lot of potential.
"Lauren Leshchyshyn was awesome this weekend. She not only led the team on the court with her play at the net but as the only returning Grade 12 player with the team this weekend she was a leader off the court helping the new players."
The Lady Saints will next travel to Estevan on Sept. 28.
