The Paul Kane Blues escaped a playoff upset in dramatic fashion in high school women's volleyball.
Looking dazed and confused after blowing a two-set lead against the surprising St. Albert Skyhawks, the Blues frantically willed their way to a gut-wrenching victory in the premier conference quarter-finals. The scores were 25-18, 25-23, 22-25, 16-25, 15-11 in Wednesday's barnburner in front of a pro-Skyhawks crowd at Paul Kane High School.
"I'm really proud that we were able to come back and actually play well after losing by so much in the fourth set," said a relieved-looking Tyra Adamic, captain of the seventh-ranked Blues provincially in 4A. "It just came down to the last few points which decided the outcome."
In the race to 15 in the deciding set, the Skyhawks bolted in front 7-2, propelled by a rat-a-tat hitting attack that riddled a leaky Paul Kane defence. A team effort generated the commanding lead, in addition to some well-placed shots by Amber Easthope.
The Blues looked down and out until Whitney Follette tapped the ball down for the third Paul Kane point, kick-starting a run of seven in a row.
"When we were down by a lot of points, we didn't think we could do it but we stayed strong and we really started to believe in each other and played as a team. We worked really hard on bringing ourselves up," said Adamic, a Grade 12 middle who played an instrumental role in the comeback charge.
A point by server Niki Oudenaarden, followed in succession by a Skyhawks' hit out of bounds, Follette's spike that landed deep and fair, Adamic's blast that was too tough to handle, a block by Follette and a ball into the net by the Skyhawks rallied the Blues into a 9-7 lead.
It was 10-9, when Adamic unleashed a boomer towards the back line. It was initially ruled out but the call was reversed. The ball was touched by the Skyhawks and the Blues were awarded a point. The Skyhawks fans in that area of the gym howled in disbelief over the turn of events.
"I think there was a touch for sure," Adamic said with a smile.
Ahead by two and one point away from yanking victory from the jaws of defeat, Hailey Lutz backhanded the ball over the net after a teammate dug out a tricky serve to seal the deal.
"In the fifth set they played a little bit better than they did in the fourth set so we were kind of shaken by that. We lost our momentum a little bit and we couldn't get it back," said Skyhawks' captain Julia Hogendoorn.
Skyhawks shine
To push the third-place 8-3 Blues (27 GW/11 GL) to the brink of elimination was a major victory for the 3A-level Skyhawks, seeded sixth in the premier bracket at 6-5 (23 GW/22 GL).
"We played amazing," said Hogendoorn, a strong Grade 12 setter. "Going into the game we were so pumped. We knew we could win because the last game we played them [Oct. 25 at Paul Kane] we took them to four sets. We knew we just had to shut down their middles and we basically did. I thought we played better defence than them, but at the end it was just the luck of the draw I guess that we didn't win."
When asked if the Skyhawks surprised themselves, Hogendoorn replied: "Yes and no. Yes, we surprised ourselves, just by the way we've been playing lately. And no because I knew we could've beat them. We could've played that good all along."
Adamic, 17, was impressed by the small and gritty Skyhawks.
"They had really good defence. They just played overall a really, really good game," she said. "It was great volleyball to play."
How the match unfolded was almost similar to last year's premier semifinal, when the tiny-but-tough Holy Trinity Trojans toppled the undefeated Blues in three sets at Paul Kane. Despite their height advantage, the Blues struggle with inconsistency against teams that are vertically challenged.
"We've been pushing all season to try to motivate ourselves to get better," said Adamic, a key contributor to the seventh-place finish by the Blues at the 2009 4A provincials. "We pushed really, really hard today and they did too. I'm just happy we were able to come out on top."
Entertaining match
The Blues dominated the net in the first set as Adamic and Jill Tymko pounded the ball for points. They never let the lead slip away after an early deficit and out-scored the Skyhawks 6-2 to complete the set.
In the next set the Blues gave points away and trailed 16-9 before storming back into contention. Follette and Maddi Aguis got untracked hitting-wise and a serve by Hannah Calver gave the Blues a brief 19-18 lead. The teams kept swapping points until Follette's spike broke a 23-all tie and Lutz's serve was unreturnable to clinch the set.
The Skyhawks made a game of it in the third set after falling behind 6-1 by out-scoring the Blues 10-2 to lead by three. Easthope and Hogendoorn put points on the board with quality hits, and serves by Stephanie MacDonald kept the Blues on their toes.
The Blues would regain the lead twice, only to have resilient Skyhawks jump back on top. After a hit by Adamic landed tight to the line in front of the Skyhawks' bench to knot it at 21, Aguis smoked a ball that was either fair or foul, depending on what team you were cheering for.
The go-ahead point went to the Blues, but after the referee and linesman huddled up, the call was reversed in favour of the Skyhawks. They went on to capture the set as the Blues lost their focus over the controversial call.
"That really changed the momentum in that set," Adamic said. "They took that momentum into the next set and played a hell of a set and we just couldn't pick it up."
In the fourth set the Skyhawks beat up the error-prone Blues pretty bad to extend the match to another go-round.
"After we got down [two sets] we kind of stopped making unforced errors. We pushed hard and you could tell we wanted it more than them," Hogendoorn said. "In the fourth set they didn't play as well as we thought they were going to so we just raised our intensity and smashed them."
The Skyhawks will now gear up for the 3A Edmonton zone tournament. The winner advances to provincials, Nov. 25 to 27 at Lloydminster. Last year the Skyhawks lost the zone final to Holy Trinity.
"I think we will come out with a big bang and hopefully we'll end it that way," said Hogendoorn, 17.
The Blues will now play the second-place 9-2 O'Leary Spartans (29 GW/16 GL) in Monday's premier semifinal at 4:45 p.m. at O'Leary High School. In the last match before the playoffs the Blues defeated the Spartans in their gym 3-1.
"It's going to be a hard match," Adamic said. "They're a strong team and we respect them as a team."
The winner will battle the 11-0 Bev Facey Falcons (33 GW/6 GL) or 8-3 Holy Trinity (26 GW/13 GL) in the Nov. 13 metro Edmonton league final. Start time is 5 p.m. at Austin O'Brien High School.
The Blues are also in great shape to compete for a provincial spot in the Edmonton zone playoffs to determine the reps for the Nov. 25 to 27 4A championship in Red Deer. If the Blues make the premier final they automatically earn a provincial berth. Last year they finished third in zones out of four qualifiers.
"Our goal all season has been provincials and we really want to get back there again," Adamic said.
Meanwhile, the Blues were victorious at the recent Salisbury Sabres tournament. It was the third championship in five tournaments and the fourth straight appearance in a tournament final by the two-time reigning Lions Western Canadian Challenge winners.
