Madison Porisky was the hammer and the Paul Kane Blues the nail in premier women's volleyball Monday.
The power-hitting Bellerose Bulldog spiked the Blues into submission at Bellerose Composite High School.
"Beating them in our own school in front of our fans was so exciting," said a beaming Porisky, the Bulldogs' captain and player of the game.
Scores were 13-25, 25-22, 25-22 and 25-15 in the best-of-five tilt.
"We brought it home," said Porisky, a Grade 12 buzz saw who shredded the Blues for a ton of points. "They gave us a tough match. Every moment was tense."
In the metro Edmonton league the Bulldogs improved to 4-3 (15 GW/12 GL) for fifth place.
"It was a great game for us. It was probably our best game of the season," Porisky said. "We gave it our all. We didn't let anything die."
The loss left the fourth-place Blues at 5-2 (17 GW/6 GL).
"Bellerose played really well today," said Tyra Adamic, Paul Kane's captain and Grade 12 middle. "We started off really strong and then I think we just beat ourselves up."
It marked the first clash between the Edmonton zone reps at last year's 4A provincials. The Blues finished seventh (4-3 record as the 10th seed in the draw) and the Bulldogs placed 10th (5-2 as the 12th seed) in the 16-team tournament.
"We're not doing as well as we would like but we're still pushing hard. We're just trying to work through it right now," said Adamic, one of six returning Blues on their 11-player roster. "When we're on, then nothing can stop us but we're having trouble continuing what we did last year."
The Bulldogs were the first women's volleyball team at Bellerose to compete at provincials since 2003.
"For sure it's a goal for us to get back there again but there is no pressure. We're just playing it one game at a time and we'll see where it takes us," said Porisky, 17.
The 2009 team MVP joins the steady Sam Mickelsen as the only Bulldogs back from last year's 9-2 record in premier and semifinal loss to the Bev Facey Falcons.
"It's a brand new team. We've had to gel all over again," Porisky said. "It's really the perfect team. We have no fights, no disagreements at all."
Last year the Blues beat the Bulldogs six times, including premier play (3-0) and the zone playoff tournament (3-1), but at provincials Bellerose swept Paul Kane 25-22, 25-16.
"Paul Kane has been a big rival for us for many years so it's good to finally put them away like we did today," Porisky said.
Bulldogs roar
In the first set the Bulldogs struggled as the Blues built up leads of 14-8, 20-10, and 24-13 before Adamic's block sealed the deal.
"We started off slow. We did what we could but it wasn't enough," Porisky said. "After the first set we kicked our butts into gear. We had a fresh start in the second set and we just swung away. We focused on our hitting and strategized more."
The Bulldogs kept pace with the Blues as the teams traded points in the back-and forth affair. Whitney Follette, a tall middle for the Blues, generated several points in the set to keep Paul Kane in front.
It was 18-16 for the Blues when Porisky generated a key point, then helped the Bulldogs string together four in a row at the serving line. Her last two points came off wicked serves to lift Bellerose into the lead at 21-18.
It was 24-19 Bulldogs when the Blues rallied to close the gap, but Porisky finished them off with a laser beam down the line in front of the Paul Kane bench that almost took the hand off a defender.
The third set was another tight affair until the Blues stacked together four points to lead 12-8. The Bulldogs stayed in the hunt before pulling even at 19 apiece, with the last two points coming from a Mickelsen block and an unreturnable serve by Brittney Sharawara. The Bulldogs jumped ahead to stay on Porisky's smash to make it 22-21. She added the next point on a clever tap over the towering Follette.
Porisky would later smoke the ball to put the Bulldogs up 24-22. On the next play Sharawara threw up a block to register the clinching point.
"We really focused on their middle players. We tried to hit around them and put the ball into holes," Porisky said.
The Bulldogs dominated the fourth set as the wave of momentum drained the will to win out of the Blues. It was 13-5 when the Blues called a timeout to regroup. Porisky had a big hand in most of the points that set against the tired-looking Paul Kane side. Follette and Adamic tried to pull the Blues back into contention with some inspired play at the net but the Bulldogs gradually pulled away. The match ended with four lethal serves by Porisky that were too hot to handle
"On the last serve I just wanted to get it over. I used my last bit of energy and just fired away," Porisky said. "I worked on my serve all last year in club volleyball [on the same team as Adamic with NAVC]. I've been hitting all my life and serving is a new thing for me to become better at."
The Bulldogs are back on the court today against the visiting Archbishop Jordan Scots (0-6) at 4:45 p.m.
The Blues also host Holy Trinity (6-0, 18 GW/2 GL) today at 4:45 p.m. Last year the Trojans stunned the undefeated Blues (12-0, 36 GW/5 GL), ranked fourth in 4A at the time, with a sweeping victory in the premier semifinals at Paul Kane.
"We've already played them and it was a real tough match and we ended up winning," said Adamic, 17, the team's recipient of the least recognition/hardest worker award last year. "We want to do it again. We basically want to show them that we can go all the way this year."
Starting Thursday afternoon is the 16th annual Lions Western Canadian Challenge at the Bellerose, Paul Kane, St. Albert Catholic and Morinville high schools. The Blues are the defending champions.
"We're so excited for it. We've been practising really hard because this is the tournament we want this year. It's our home tournament. It's a huge tournament. It's a well-known tournament. We had so much fun last year that we want to go out and try and do it again," Adamic said of the Blues, who are coming off a loss to a school from Norway in the Notre Dame final last weekend in Red Deer after winning the Bev Facey tournament earlier in the season.
