The Steinbach Regional Secondary School junior varsity girls volleyball team came up short in its attempt to qualify for the Provincial Championships.

Lord Selkirk beat the Sabres 25-22, 22-25, 25-15, 25-18 in a "AAAA" wildcard match Monday night at Murdoch MacKay Collegiate in Winnipeg.

"Unfortunately it's a disappointing end to our season," said SRSS coach Amy Toews. "I had high hopes for these girls. There's a lot of talent on the team. We just couldn't find a way to stay consistent from start to finish throughout that match which Selkirk took advantage of and that's just how the game goes sometimes."

"I think once we got to that fourth set, as soon as we were down by a few points, the girls panicked," added Toews. "They saw that the end was there and unfortunately they didn't see the end in our favour. You could see it in their faces. Nerves got the better of them. I say everything I can to encourage them but ultimately that's an experience thing. The more you play the more you can figure out how to deal with your nerves. The experience just wasn't there with that yet and that's part of this age group."

The Sabres lost the South Central Athletic Conference final to the Glenlawn Lions last Thursday in Winnipeg and the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association gave the SRSS a second chance to get to the provincials through the wildcard.

The SRSS battled but the Royals, who lost out in the semifinals of the Kilcona Peguis Athletic Conference to Mennonite Brethren, were the better team on Monday night and will move on to the provincials which begin Thursday in Winnipeg.

When reflecting on the past three months, coach Toews said her team make huge strides from the start of volleyball season right until the end of the fourth set of their wildcard loss to Lord Selkirk.

"They improved a lot," remarked Toews. "This was a great group of girls to work with. The majority of them haven't played at a high level - at a school level yet. This is their first time playing "AAAA" against big city schools, and you know, they rose up to the challenge - they really did. That's not reflected in how we played today but they really improved over the course of the season."

The hardest part of Monday night - when coach Toews and her players left the gymnasium and headed down the hallway for one last group chat.

"It's always a tough thing when it's the last game of the season," Toews said. "You don't want to believe that it's over yet. The ultimate goal was to go the distance and it didn't happen. It's a life lesson for them to learn - to take it and to learn from it and to move forward from it."

 

photos by Sam Dreger