Home court powers varsity boys to SCAC volleyball championship

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This article was published 24/11/2022 (1142 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It took until nearly 11:30 p.m., but the Steinbach Regional Secondary School varsity boys team was able to equal their counterparts, winning a South Central Athletic Conference (SCAC) banner inside their home gym.

With the girls’ match going a full five sets, including a 19-17 final set, the boys match didn’t begin until well into the evening.

While there was plenty of drama to be found in the girls varsity final, the varsity Sabres boys team was (relatively) more comfortable finding their way to the championship banner, winning 3-1 (25-14, 25-21, 19-25, 25-19) over the Dakota Lancers.

Both the boys and girls SCAC finals featured Steinbach against Dakota, with Steinbach using a raucous home-court advantage to lock up the varsity SCAC championships.

“(The fans) were awesome tonight,” SRSS head coach Joe Thiessen said after the match.

“Home court advantage was significant tonight, and they kept it going. It’s 11:30 at night, and the fans were in it right to the end. They did a great job.”

It looked as if the Sabres would make quick work of their opponents, dominating the front-court battle en route to a 25-14 first set. Thiessen praised the work of grade 12 players Hudson Rempel and Boston Thiessen for leading the attack in the first set.

“We came out firing in that first set and set the tone,” Joe Thiessen said.

“That’s a very good team we played tonight. They were scrappy, defense was excellent on both sides. What a great match.”

It wouldn’t be as easy for Steinbach, as Dakota got used to the Sabres power up front, the Lancers were able to scratch and claw back into the game.

“They’ve got some very good players over there,” Thiessen said.

“They battle hard, they’re very well coached and we respect them. We expected a good, solid match tonight, and that was one of our best matches of the year.”

With the victory, the Sabres locked up a spot at the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association (MHSAA) AAAA championships. Like their girls varsity counterparts, the Sabres boys varsity team is seeded third at the tournament. They’ll play the winner between Vincent Massey (Brandon) and River East in a quarterfinal match at Daniel McIntyre at 2 p.m. Nov. 26.

The semi-final and final matches of the tournament will be hosted at the University of Manitoba.

“We don’t worry too much about the score, what’s happening around us, or who we’re going to play against, we just want to go out there and play our team game,” Thiessen said.

“(We play) a real grind it, defensive, team game, we’re fundamental, and if we can do that, we’re going to have some success at provincials.”

The SRSS boys junior varsity team lost to Glenlawn Collegiate in the SCAC championship match.