WESTLOCK — The St. Mary Sharks boys emerged with silver medals from the R.F. Staples Junior High Invitational on Oct. 13-14, which was the best result out of the 10 Westlock and area teams entered in the two-day volleyball tournament.
The Invitational featured a total of 20 girls’ teams and 16 boys’ teams from Westlock, Barrhead, Athabasca, Neerlandia, Dapp, Morinville, Riviére Qui Barre, Legal, St. Albert and Edmonton.
The event was so large that it took up the volleyball courts at R.F. Staples, St. Mary School and the Westlock Rotary Spirit Centre.
On the boys’ side, the St. Mary Sharks started out in a pool with Joseph Demko out of St. Albert, Barrhead Composite High School and Morinville.
They placed second after defeating Joseph Demko and Morinville in two sets each while losing to BCHS in three.
In the playoffs, the St. Mary boys defeated Parkland Composite from Edson, St. Joseph from Edmonton and the R.F. Staples black team in order to advance to the final.
That pitted them against ESSMY (École Secondaire Sainte Marguerite d’Youville) out of St. Albert, which felled the Sharks in two straight sets to win the gold.
Meanwhile, the R.F. Staples black boys team also had a strong showing, finishing third in the tournament.
They started out strong by finishing first in their pool, defeating RS Fowler out of St. Albert in three sets, Neerlandia Public Christian School in two and CCRS (Covenant Canadian Reformed School) from Neerlandia in three.
The RFS black squad then defeated their school’s red team in the first round of playoffs, followed by Hilltop High School from Whitecourt in the second round..
Their loss against St. Mary moved them into a third-place playoff match with BCHS, who they defeated in two sets to win the bronze.
On the girls’ side, the strongest finish was achieved by the R.F. Staples black team, which finished fifth overall.
The RFS black squad placed first in their pool by downing RS Fowler in three sets, Neerlandia in three sets and Morinville in two sets.
In the playoffs, they downed Edwin Parr Composite from Athabasca before losing to Camilla School in the second round.
That put them into a consolation playoff where they defeated Legal and Parkland to earn fifth place.
