The Battleford Volleyball Club Impact 15U girls’ team took full advantage of playing on their home court this weekend.
As the host club for a 12-team 15U girls’ tournament at the NationsWest Field House, the Impact had a perfect 7-0 record on their way to a straight sets win in the final Sunday over the Huskie Volleyball Club from Saskatoon.
“The girls were playing well right from the start,” Impact head coach Jana Friedenstab said. “They did an excellent job in the round-robin with a 5-0 record, and they did a good job of playing against some different teams that we may not have expected to face in the playoffs.
“We were running a more complex offence, especially in the front row, and the girls did a great job of connecting on their set plays.”
After winning the first set of the final by a score of 25-13, the Impact team had to claw their way back in the second set as they edged out the Huskie club by a 25-21 margin.
“The Huskies run two lines that they swap out so that presented a bit of a challenge,” Friedenstab said.
“What I like about our team is that they didn’t get down on themselves, especially in that second set. We needed to get points off of the serve and we did that to get the win.”
The tournament win for the Impact 15U squad came a week after they picked up a bronze medal at the second Sask Cup tournament of the season in Saskatoon.
“We had a really good match in the semifinal against Oxbow but we just missed out on winning that one,” Friedenstab said.
“In the bronze medal game against Swift Current, we started off a little bit slow but we really picked things up in the last two sets to get the win.”
The Impact team will be heading to a tournament in Swift Current next weekend before competing in the third Sask Cup event of the year in Saskatoon on April 1.
Meanwhile, the BVC Thunder U16 boys are looking to build off of a 13th place result that they achieved at a Sask Cup tournament here two weeks ago.
“I think the guys learned a lot from that weekend, especially when it comes to the mental aspect of the game,” Thunder coach Paul Sarsons said. “The attention to detail at that level is huge, especially when you play against the top teams in the province.
“We’ve worked on a few things with our serving that we hope to be better at when we go to Prince Albert in two weeks. We’re also without a couple of our middle players due to injury, so we’ve had to make some adjustments with that part of our lineup.”
