The MCS Senior Boys Cobras volleyball squad hosted their home tournament Friday and Saturday but couldn't get to the needed level of play to win the event.
"We were somewhat inconsistent throughout the tournament but we played pretty well," offers coach Dan Schellenberg, coach of Cobras, which lost out in the semi-finals to the eventual second-place Saints from Sacred Heart 26-24 and 25-21.
The Saints would go on to play the Wolseley Warriors in the final and lose in three games.
Schellenberg says his club is slowly but surely rounding into form with a noticeable difference in play from week to week.
"Aaron Haas was our most consistent hitter and we did well when we were able to get him the ball in the middle. Kendan Kennedy's consistent setting allowed the hitters many options and Jesse McCutcheon served extremely well," Schellenberg explains.
In the round-robin portion of the tourney, the Cobras lost to Langenburg in two straight games, due to too many unforced errors at opportune times.
Wolseley was MCS's next opponent, and the Cobras managed to dispatch the Warriors, who would go on to win, in two straight games.
"We really raised our level of play and decreased the unforced errors. We were also able to exploit their serve-receive weaknesses."
The Cobras finished the preliminary part of the tournament by getting knocked off by Sacred Heart and followed that with a two-straight victory over Indian Head as well as a two-straight win over Balcarres.
"Against Yorkton we struggled with our own serve-receive passes which led to a lot of double blocks. Against Indian Head, Kennedy had a very strong setting game and gave our hitters lots of options."
For Schellenberg, the weekend's positives outweighed the negatives by a large margin, and he feels the best is yet to come for his club
"Our veteran power player, Cole Wenet, had a breakout weekend for us. He improved his consistency and managed to get a lot of wipe-offs from power. Dustin Graff played well on the right side and had a number of well timed kills. Fisher Cogdale blocked quite well in the middle and Jared Kreklewich served well and played solid," adds Schellenberg.
"He also stepped up and played well on the right side in the front row as required."
Two other players the Cobras coach singled out for strong play were Tanner Bokor and Chad Zulyniak.
"Bokor passed well as our libero all weekend. His consistency is improving each game and Zulyniak played excellent defense out of power in the back row. His serving was also an asset to the team."
