It was an exciting weekend of volleyball in Shaunavon and Eastend on Nov. 28/29 when the SHSAA provincial 4A boys volleyball tournament was held!  Ten teams travelled from all over the province to take part.  In fact, teams travelled over 5400 km just to get to the Southwest!  The teams taking part included Creighton, La Loche, Birch Hills, Nipawin, Beauval, Oxbow, Melville, Moose Jaw Central, Osler VCA and the host Shaunavon Shadows.  Action started Friday at noon in two locations – Shaunavon high school and Eastend – and continued through late into Saturday evening. Our ten teams were divided into two pools of five.  Pool standings were:

Pool A:

1st Osler VCA  4-0

2nd Oxbow 3-1

3rd Birch Hills 1-3

4th Shaunavon 1-3

5th Beauval 1-3

Pool B:

1st Melville 4-0

2nd La Loche 3-1

3rd Creighton 2-2

4th Moose Jaw Central 1-3

5th Nipawin 0-4

            The host Shadows had an exciting last game in the round robin on Saturday morning when they defeated Birch Hills 2 sets to 1 to qualify for the playoff round.  Our quarter final matches were as follows:

1st in Pool A Osler VCA defeated 4th in Pool B Moose Jaw Central 2-0

2nd in Pool B La Loche defeated 3rd in Pool A Birch Hills 2-0

1st in Pool B Melville defeated 4th in Pool B Shaunavon 2-0

2nd in Pool A Oxbow defeated 3rd in Pool B Creighton 2-0.

            Our semi finals saw Osler VCA get the win over La Loche 2-0 and Oxbow defeating Melville 2-1.  The medal games both took place in the Shaunavon high school gym on Saturday evening.  It started with the bronze medal game between Melville Cobras and La Loche Lakers.  The Cobras cruised to a win over the very tired Lakers (who drove many, many kilometers as well as suffered bus breakdowns).  Scores were 25-12, 25-9 in favour of Melville.  The gold medal match was very exciting!  The #1 ranked Oxbow Black Knights defeated Osler VCA 26-24, 25-21 to capture the gold medal.  Congratulations to both Shaunavon High School and Eastend School for hosting an excellent championship.  Our commissioners Jennifer Foley and Val Gordon did a fantastic job!

            We also had two southwest teams taking part in 1A provincial volleyball in Mossbank – Frontier Raiders and Fox Valley Legends.  Fox Valley finished 2nd in Pool B with a record of 3-1.  They had victories over Avonlea (2-0), Borden (2-0) and Gladmar (2-0).  Their lone loss was to Annaheim (2-0).  Meanwhile in Pool A, Frontier finished 2nd with a record of 2-2.  The Raiders had wins over Coronach (2-0) and Broadview (2-0) but lost to Thunderchild (2-1) and Mossbank (2-0).  This led to a southwest match up between Fox Valley and Frontier in the quarterfinals.  The Legends from Fox Valley came away with a 2 set victory by scores of 25-15, 25-21.  The Legends then met the host team Mossbank in the semi’s.  They lost a very close match 21-25, 25-17, 22-25.  This put them in the bronze medal final against Thunderchild.  Unfortunately, Fox Valley came up short losing 2-1 (18-25, 25-19, 10-25) but the young team gained valuable experience for next year!

            This brings to a conclusion our high school volleyball season.  Thanks to all our coaches, officials and players for a great fall!

            We now move our sights to the winter sports on the high school calendar – curling, wrestling and basketball.  Our basketball junior and senior leagues will be starting in December.  Our junior league will play on Thursday’s and  has the following schools taking part:

Boys –Frontier, Maple Creek, Shaunavon, Swift Current Comp, Waldeck.

Girls –Frontier, Maple Creek, Shaunavon, Swift Current Comp, Waldeck and Wymark.

Our senior leagues play on Thursday and include:

Boys – Maple Creek, Shaunavon, Swift Current Jr Colts, Herbert.

Girls – Maple Creek, Shaunavon, Swift Current Jr Ardens, Frontier and Gull Lake.

            Scheduled basketball games for December:

December 9 – senior games:

Swift Current Jr Ardens @ Shaunavon (girls)

Frontier @ Gull Lake (girls)

 

December 11 – junior game:

Swift Current Comp gr 9 boys @ Waldeck

 

December 16 – senior games:

Frontier @ Maple Creek (girls)

Gull Lake @ Swift Current Jr Ardens (girls)

Herbert @ Maple Creek (boys)

Shaunavon @ Swift Current Colts (boys)

 

December 18 – junior games:

Shaunavon @ Waldeck (girls & boys)

Maple Creek @ Frontier (girls & boys)

Swift Current gr 9 girls @ Wymark