The Sacred Heart High School (SHHS) senior girls volleyball team played in the 16 team Mega Volley Tourna-ment in Regina. The event, co-hosted by Winston Knoll, Riffel and Thom High Schools, featured teams from Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
The Lady Saints began the tournament with only eight players, three Grade 12s and five rookies because several players stayed in Yorkton to compete in the home soccer tournament.
The Lady Saints began the tournament with two matches back to back against Swift Current and Winston Knoll. Both matches were very close but the Lady Saints came up short in each. In the final pool match the Lady Saints faced Regina Luther High School. SHHS jumped out to a commanding lead to win the first set 25-21. In the second set Luther fought back to win 16-25.
After being repooled the Saints came out flat against a very strong Melville squad losing two straight games.
The Lady Saints then had to play their fifth match of the day against Moose Jaw Peacock losing a very close match 19-25 and 16-25.
Saturday morning SHHS faced Watrous winning both sets 27-25 and 25-19 to finish third in their pool.
In the consolation quarter final SHHS faced Thom High School. Exhaustion played a factor in this match as the short bench caught up to the young Saints team which lost both games by score s of 14-25 and 20-25.
Coach Perry Enns says "It was a very high calibre tournament and a great experience for our team to play in, especially the young players. Riana Skikewich a Grade 10 setter played the entire tournament which was a great for her development as a setter Morgan Shymanski and Patty Shingoose-Shembhi Grade 10 power hitters played very well this weekend contributing some big hits from the corner."
The following weekend the Lady Saints traveled to Estevan to take part in a seven team tournament. They had a difficult schedule Friday night facing three of the top teams in the tournament. The team had some close matches but remained winless at the end of the evening.
Saturday morning SHHS faced Midale. The two teams were very evenly matched with each team winning a set. Finally Sacred Heart won the match by one point.
The Lady Saints went on to defeat Carlyle and Estevan en route to a fourth place round robin finish.
In the quarter finals Sacred Heart faced Midale again. The Lady Saints carried the momentum of the round robin into this match taking an early lead and never looking back to win two straight games 25-16 and 25-13.
The win advanced the Lady Saints to the semi finals against Oxbow who finished first by going undefeated in the round robin.
The Lady Saints took an early lead in the set but Oxbow battled back late in the set to win the first set 23-25. The Lady Saints were unable to bounce back in the second set falling victim to some very strong serving by the Oxbow team losing the second set 12-25.
Sacred Heart coach Perry Enns says, "I was happy with our play on Saturday. We played very well as a team defensively. Mariel Kotyk and Kristen Jonassen led the team offensively each scored some huge spike kills from the Power position. Katelyn Inglis played very well in the setting position running our offense and Morgan Shymanski turned in an amazing performance against Estevan, dominating the entire match."
