Last week it was the girls. This week it was the boys' turn.
The Saints hosted the Raiders Friday afternoon in the first of a bunch of Raider/Saints showdowns this season, this one switched venues to the HaloDome.
"There is always a rivalry, always, in every sport. No matter how you look at it," suggests Dion Pfeifer, coach of the YRHS squad following his team's gutsy effort in a 2-1, best of 3 sets win over Sacred Heart Friday afternoon.
"They played well against us yesterday."
"That's a good all around team," adds Curtis Moen, coach of the Saints team, of his Yorkton Regional High School counterpart.
Moen's club came out on top after 20 minutes of play, taking it to the Orange in the first set, winning 25-22.
"They step it up a notch. They know it will be a good team to play," he said of his own troops.
"We had nice court movement and did some really good pinching. They (YRHS) are a good all-around team."
Moen, into his second year coaching the SHHS (Sacred Heart High School) Saints senior boys, is looking at a similar finish this year, even though he has already lost some of the biggest names in SHHS boys volleyball.
Bye bye to Preston Liebrecht, Dylan Johnson and Logan Coutts among other.
But it does open up space for younger brother Brock Liebrecht.
Moen said the younger sibling, who is the new team captain, brings "good leadership" to the court this year; Brendon Walkington is also making a stance this year, says Moen.
"We're actually looking stronger this year," he says smiling.
Last year, SHHS made provincials where they finished at Wilkie with fourth place.
The team is all Gr. 10-12s, says Moen.
"We lost about half of our starting line."
Moen is still pretty confident that one Liebrecht can fill in for his brother.
"I'm hoping for a medal this year," says Moen.
At this year's home tournament, the Yorkton Regional High School and Kincaid took SHHS all the way.
"We only have the Regional and Kincaid, went three sets with each of them.
YRHS
The orange Raiders rebounded from falling behind 1-0 in sets. They look a lot different too, says coach Pfeifer.
"There's a change," he said. "There's new bodies. There's five new players on the senior team. We're learning. It's a learning experience."
Pfeifer hasn't had a lot of time to see where this year's team stands in terms of talent.
There's no Tyler Boychuk, or Kostas Karachalios, and two others.
"No, it's always a feeling-out process to see where guys belong. It's kind of a big thing."
He said things should get interesting after the October long weekend when everybody takes a break for Thanksgiving.
"The bigger tournaments are after Thanksgiving."
The YRHS team this year will have one thing it didn't have last year, says Pfeifer.
"There's one from Alberta," he said.
Jordan Charobot comes to the team from Alberta and will join Daniel Mandziuk being the team's two left-handed centres.
