The Paul Kane Blues settled for second best in the Edmonton zone in women's volleyball.
The metro Edmonton premier conference champions dropped a 19-25, 25-19, 25-23, 23-25, 13-15 decision to the Spruce Grove Panthers, winners of the Edmonton public league, during Wednesday's playoff at Paul Kane High School.
The match determined the first and second Edmonton seeds at the 4A provincial tournament next week in Red Deer.
The Blues showed flashes of brilliance but were plagued by inconsistency.
"We came out thinking that it wasn't really a game that we had to win because we were going to provincials already," said Maddi Agius, a dangerous Grade 11 power hitter. "When we lost the first set, that's when we realized we wanted to win and be first in Edmonton out of the leagues. But by the time we started pushing it was too late. It just wasn't enough, I guess."
The Panthers looked more relieved than satisfied after dispatching the powerhouse Blues.
"This win means a lot because we wanted to be the top-ranked team in the zone," said Panthers' setter Brie Gray, a Grade 12 transfer student from Sturgeon Composite High School. "We knew we could do it. When we're on we play really, really well and we had everything going today."
Last year the Blues finished third in the zone elimination tournament as four teams qualified for provincials. They placed seventh overall at provincials with a 4-3 record in best-of-three match play.
The Strathcona Lords and Harry Ainlay Titans from the public league also qualified for this year's provincials as the third and fourth seeds, respectively, from the zone.
The last provincial women's championship by a Paul Kane volleyball team was celebrated by the 1986 lady Blues.
"We want to do really good this year," said Agius, who starred for the junior Blues' premier championship winning team last year. "Lots of teams want to compete against us because they think PK is the big dog. That's happened in a lot of tournaments, where people want to beat PK.
"But I know for sure we want to beat everyone too at provincials."
In five tournaments the Blues were victorious three times, including a repeat performance at the Lions Western Canadian Challenge, and were the runners-up once.
In league play, playoffs and the zone final, the Blues finished 11-4 (38 GW/18 GL) overall.
They also won the first premier women's volleyball crown in school history.
"It's awesome what we did this year. No one expected that St. Albert would be good at volleyball," Agius said. "Because we've won three of the tournaments and came close in the other ones, I think people are kind of targeting us and that's good. It makes for more competition. It also makes it harder for us, which is probably good in the long run."
In the 4A provincial rankings released this week, Paul Kane slipped from second to third and the Panthers jumped from 10th to fourth.
"[Our rankings] is just a number but it's a nice number," said Stan Andronyk, head coach of the Blues. "It's voted on by people across the province. During those tournaments when we play teams across the province, they're noticing what the girls can do and they have really stepped up in those tournaments."
Out of synch
In the zone final, Paul Kane performed like a junior high team in the opening set. Looking mentally and physically drained from their epic 25-11, 25-20, 17-25, 29-31, 15-7 victory over the defending champion Holy Trinity Trojans in the premier final last Saturday, the Blues struggled putting points on the board as the Panthers scored in bunches. After a Paul Kane timeout, the Blues pulled to within two of the leaders before the Panthers outscored the home team 7-3 to lead 18-13 and they never looked back.
"In the first set we were just playing and not really doing much. We also missed so many hits," Agius said. "After that set we started hitting and we started acting more like us. We were cheering more too."
Gray said the Panthers weren't that great either.
"We didn't start off as good as we hoped because we didn't have the best warm-up," she said. "It was actually stressful for us. We were a little weak but then we picked it up. We started to run our outsides because they have bigger middles so we had to hit around them."
In the second set the Blues broke it open with a 9-2 point run for a commanding 20-12 advantage, in large part to strong serving by captain Tyra Adamic and setter Hailey Lutz, plus Whitney Follette's dominating presence in the middle. Role players Jill Tymko and Hanna Calver also made significant contributions in the set.
The Blues ramped up their attack in the third set with the one-two punch of Follette and Adamic doing most of the damage. It was 16-7 Blues, when the Panthers scored five in a row with ease. A mighty hit by Tymko that was difficult to defend against made it 19-16 as the Blues started picking up steam. A bullet by Courtney Alcock lifted the Blues to the brink of victory at 24-20. However, three straight points by the Panthers forced Andronyk to call a time out to calm down his players. When play resumed, a block by Follette produced the winning point as the ball fell between two defenders positioned tight of the net.
In the fourth set the Panthers bolted into a 9-3 lead and extended the margin to 21-15 before the Blues responded with four in a row through Adamic's serving, a big block by Follette and a wicked hit by Alcock. Down by two at 23-20, the Blues climbed back into contention with a couple of scoring plays by Follette. After the Panthers produced their 24th point, Agius crushed a ball that landed just fair. On the next play the Panthers wrapped up the set to force a tiebreaker.
"We were hitting really hard from the outsides and right side. Going line was a big key too. They left that open sometimes," said Gray, 17. "Our passing was there as well and we really needed that in a big game like this."
In the fifth set the Blues tacked up three straight points as the Panthers had trouble getting their hits to stick. It was 5-3 Blues when the Panthers rattled off three in a row on the strength of their serving. The Blues answered with a pair and then the Panthers tallied twice before switching sides leading 8-7.
Facing a two-point deficit, the Blues rallied to lead 10-9 on hits by Alcock and Adamic, some solid serves by Agius and a hitting snafu by the Panthers. They regained the lead at 11-10, but Adamic put the Blues back on top with a clutch hit for the tying point and then a serve that was unreturnable.
After the Blues scored their 13th point on a drive down the middle by Follette that shook the net, the Panthers called a timeout. They returned to the floor and polished the Blues off with four points in succession to complete the victory.
"We didn't push hard enough near the end," said Agius, 16. "We just have to want it more."
