Canmore Collegiate High School’s junior girls’ volleyball team were looking for redemption on Saturday (Nov. 1) and found it by taking first place in a tournament held at Banff Community High School.
The Crusaders suffered a loss to Banff the week prior, but used the experience to work on their weaknesses and figure out what they had to accomplish as a team to make it to the top. The Crusaders ended up facing Olds High School for the championship, winning the final set 25-17, declaring them victors.
“We’ve been playing really well and I’m very proud of my team because it’s great to come back. At our previous tournament in Banff we played pretty scrambled and today we were pulling it together,” Crusader Reegan Downer said.
“This week we’ve really practiced and put all efforts into playing our game and how we normally play and it’s been working well and we’ve been winning all our games so far.”
Canmore faced Banff in the morning and took the match in two sets, 25-23, 25-12.
The Crusaders also faced Cremona, taking the win in two sets. “The first (set) we played was quite scrambled but we still pulled through and won that one 25-10 and the second (set) we won 25-12,” said Downer
The morning wins put the Crusaders first in their pool and left them playing the waiting game to find out whom they would be facing in the semifinals.
Olds ended up taking BCHS out in the semifinals to meet up with the Crusaders in the final.
Both teams brought their A games, with some nail-baiting rallies taking place over both matches and each team taking the lead in point position in the final. The Crusaders stood their ground to take the tournament win, though.
“We came back and played the same teams and we had good energy and we beat them,” said Crusader Jazlyn Evans on the tournament win and receiving redemption from last week’s loss.
“We had a more positive attitude and we worked on our hitting so we brought more net domination today.”
This Saturday (Nov. 8) the junior girls’ Crusaders will head to zones in Brooks.
