Of course they were going to play five sets.

The top two volleyball teams in the province met Monday night in Winnipeg with the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association's Provincial "AAAA" Junior Varsity boys championship banner on the line.

And yes the Steinbach Regional Secondary School and Lord Selkirk put on a volleyball clinic.

In the end it was the Royals who pulled away in the fifth set and captured the big prize.

Lord Selkirk beat the SRSS 25-27, 25-17, 25-21, 20-25, 15-11.

"Definitely nerve-wracking for a lot of the guys," said Sabres middle hitter Spencer Teetaert after the tough loss to the Royals. "Most of them had never been in a provincial final so to come out and play like we did was pretty good I guess. I thought we had it going into it. Fifth sets are always that close. There were just a few key elements of the game that we couldn't execute in the end - one or two points here and there and thats' that."

Lord Selkirk was seeded number one and Steinbach Regional was number two.

Very little separated these two outstanding volleyball teams Monday night at the University of Manitoba's Investors Group Athletic Centre.

"I don't think we passed as well as we could have," Sabres setter Brayden Kehler said. "It was more defence and not having confidence in our passing. I think if we would have played them tomorrow, it would have been a different story. It was really close."

Both Teetaert and Kehler were named to the tournament All-Star team while Royals left side hitter Nigel Nielsen was chosen the MVP.

"Two years ago I lost this exact game with our Sabres team in the provincial final to Selkirk and then the next year they came up and they won it at the varsity level," said SRSS coach Greg Loeppky. "You only know what it feels like to play in big games if you get a chance to play in big games so it's something to build on but we're very pleased with the boys and the right two teams were here tonight."

College Jeanne-Sauve swept Lord Selkirk in the girls final as they won 25-12, 25-17, 25-18.