WESTLOCK — The R.F. Staples senior girls' volleyball team finished in seventh place at the Alberta Schools Athletic Association (ASAA) 3A Provincials in Strathmore from Nov. 23-25.
Riding high off of their win at the North Central Zone Championship on Nov. 17-18, the R.F. Staples senior girls’ volleyball team had been ranked fifth in the province.
They were hoping to do well at the 3A Provincials in Strathmore, but they also recognized that the competition would be stiff, having faced three of the teams that were ranked above them previously in the season.
Things started off well enough, with the R.F. Staples girls being placed in a pool of four with Peace Wapiti, Cochrane and St. Albert Catholic High School.
The T-Birds lost their first game to St. Albert 22-25, 26-24, 11-15 on Nov. 23, but they rebounded and defeated Cochrane 22-25, 26-24 and 15-8 later that day.
They then walloped Peace Wapiti 25-21 and 25-17 on Nov. 24 to finish out the round-robin.
“We were second in our pool, which we were happy about,” said coach Leanne Huppertz.
Their first playoff match on Nov. 24 saw R.F. Staples defeat Strathmore 25-16 and 25-23, but they then fell against St. Joseph from Grande Prairie, the third-ranked team in the province, in two sets of 25-20.
That put R.F. Staples into the consolation playoffs on Nov. 25, where their first opponent was St. Albert Catholic, the only team to beat them in the round-robin. Again, St. Albert had the T-Birds' number and they lost 16-25 and 21-25.
R.F. Staples finished out the tournament against Magrath and defeated them in three close sets of 17-25, 25-18 and 21-19. That left the girls in seventh place.
