The Yorkton Regional High School (YRHS) senior boys hosted southern playoffs, featuring the top eight teams in the south battling for three berths at the provincial championship tournament.
The Senior raiders swept their pool, winning three matches. Possibly the toughest match was the opening series as they needed three games to put away Weyburn, downed Moose Jaw Vanier and Swift Current in two games to earn a bye into the semi final.
YRHS advanced to the final against Estevan with a win over Moose Jaw Central in the semi final match.
YRHS head coach Dion Pfeifer admits he was a little uncertain of his team would play in the final. "We came out and played very well against Estevan," he says.
In the semi-final YRHS dominated and won the first game, Pfeifer reports. "In the second game it was like a switch went off for some reason and we let them back into the game. They gave us a whupping in the second game," he explains. The Raiders rebounded and played well in the third game to win the match.
The Raiders were beaten in a couple of games at the tournament but managed to persevere and win the third game in each case to claim the match. "It was good to see the guys take that upon themselves and fight back from being down. They turned it around and we came out on top of two matches where we were down," Pfeifer states.
Winning the semi-final guaranteed the Raiders a berth at provincial. Winning the tournament championship will maybe help with the rankings, Pfeifer says.
The Raiders will probably meet Estevan at provincials, he predicts. " Having beat them twice in playoff matches the past couple of weekends should help us when we meet them again," he suggests.
The top three teams at southerns, YRHS, Estevan and Moose Jaw all advanced to provincials hosted by P.A. Carleton this weekend. The provincial championships will feature the top three teams in the south, top three from the north and the top teams from Saskatoon and Regina, Pfeifer reports.
There will be two pools of five at provincials with the top three advancing to the playoff round, Pfeifer explains. "Our goal, first of all, is to make the playoffs," he says. The competition will be tough with the top teams in the province all battling for the provincial title. "If we play like we can and make the playoffs, let the chips fall where they may," he says.
Both middle hitters Ben Redl and Kostas Karachalios are very strong, Pfeifer suggests. The strategy will be to get the ball to the two middle hitters as opposed to the corners most opposing teams will employ.
Pfeifer has been working the team on being more consistent and more aggressive on the serving leading up to provincials. "If we can serve well and pass the ball, we should have a pretty good shot," he predicts.
Pfeifer appreciates the work of assistant coach Darren Teneycke. The two, who played volleyball on provincial teams and at university have a good working relationship. "We've known each other for over 25 years so there's a lot of volleyball experience on the bench," Pfeifer points out. After playing volleyball as teammates, both coaches compliment one another and help each other with offensive strategy and players, he explains. "We're usually on the same page. It definitely helps having two minds instead of one," Pfeifer closes.
