History was served by the Richard S. Fowler Falcons as the school’s first championship winning female volleyball team.
Fowler did it in grand style against the Sir George Simpson Voyageurs, winners of three consecutive St. Albert Physical Education Council junior high Tier I city finals who toppled the undefeated Falcons in four sets in the 2018 playoff. After losing the opening set in Thursday's rematch, Fowler roared back with an unwavering will to finish what it started last year.
“We wanted this so much. We played so hard to get here and to win it is awesome,” said captain Hannah Lauckner while clutching the SAPEC banner and Playoff Cup during a joyous victory celebration at Bellerose Composite High School.
The 19-25, 25-19, 25-21, 26-24 score was too good to be true for Fowler.
“It’s crazy. I honestly can’t believe it,” said Grade 9 power Kate Clayton, the team’s player of the match. “We worked all year really hard for this moment and it’s really amazing.”
Visit StAlbertToday.ca to view the team’s banner picture.
This year, Simpson was undefeated (30 GW/4 GL in 10 wins) before Fowler turned the tables in the third final in four years between the schools.
“We played as a team. We didn’t get down on each other. We cheered each other on. We helped each other get this win,” Lauckner said.
The lone loss for Fowler (10-1, 30 GW/9 GL) in the SAPEC league was 19-25, 23-25, 25-27 at Simpson on Oct. 10.
“It was really upsetting. We did not have a good game so we really wanted to bring up our game and we did,” Clayton said.
The result was the turning point in Fowler’s season.
“We improved. We worked more as a team. We helped each other through good and bad,” said Lauckner, a returning Falcon along with Clayton from the 25-10, 11-25, 22-25, 17-25 final against Simpson as Fowler finished 10-1 (31 GW/9 GL).
“I felt that loss last year,” Lauckner said.
The first set in this year's final was a tight affair until a five-point run put Simpson ahead to stay at 19-14 before closing it out with a pair of points apiece by captain Mila Pesevic and Zoe Sauter. They are among four Voyageurs back from last year’s 9-2 (31 GW/11 GL) team seeded third in the playoffs.
“We were a bit nervous at the start, but we really seemed to pick it up after that,” Clayton said.
The next set featured a six-point run by Fowler to lead 10-4 as Raven Vidal’s serving produced three of the points.
Fowler threatened to pull away with leads of 3-5, 15-8 and 16-12 before Simpson stacked five points together, with the last three on hits by Sauter, team’s player of the match, to knot it at 18.
Fowler ramped it up by out-scoring Simpson 7-1 with Clayton contributing an ace to make it 20-18 and the second of two point-producing hits Lauckner ended the set.
“When they won the first set, we were like, 'That’s not going to be it for us.' We wanted to win and we tried harder,” said Lauckner, a Grade 9 power and the tallest Falcon at five-foot-10.
In the third set, Simpson jumped ahead 6-3 with six points in a row backed by Olivia Hwang’s serving before Fowler grabbed control during a four-point spurt to pull ahead 13-9 and never looked back. Key points included Claudia Holt’s serve at 15-11, Clayton’s smash down the line at 17-14, Lauckner’s hit that was too hot to handle at 22-20 and Clayton’s unreturnable hit to close it out.
“We kept the enthusiasm up and that was the most important part for us,” Clayton said.
Sauter, a Grade 9 middle, provided the bulk of her team's points in the third set.
The fourth set swung back and forth as Clayton tied it at nine with one of her many hits and Sauter made it 15-10 with another strong play at the net. Clayton contributed two of Fowler's four points during a run that evened the count at 19.
Fowler was on the verge of victory at 23-20 after four points in a row through the efforts of Clayton, Vidal and Abby Holt before Simpson replied with Sauter and Pesevic sparking the comeback charge to regain the lead at 24-23.
Clayton’s block for the 24th point, a Simpson hitting miscue resulted in the 25th point and Vidal’s block for the championship clinching point triggered a prolonged group hug as the Fowler fans cheered mightily.
“We were really nervous, but we had to trust each other and know that we were going to get every ball. We just did it as a team and stayed together,” said Clayton, 14, of the thrilling conclusion to the playoff tilt.
“We did our best and we executed very well,” added Lauckner, 14. “We didn’t want to lose, we didn’t want them to win, so we really wanted to end it and we took it.”
