Staff
During a team supper at the beginning of the season, the Muskie junior boys’ volleyball squad set a goal of finishing atop the NorWOSSA standings.
The black-and-gold is well on its way to accomplishing that feat with three matches left in the regular season.
The juniors improved to 4-1 with a 3-1 win over the host Kenora Broncos last Wednesday afternoon.
After dropping the opening set 25-20, the Muskies stormed back to win the next three by scores of 25-17, 25-23, and 25-18.
“Our team played exceedingly well in our victory over Kenora,” head coach Amy Wilson-Hands said in an e-mailed response to the Times.
“Our passing average was high, which meant our setters could run some offensive systems that we have been working on in practice.
“Our boys really stepped up in hitting, as well as coverage,” she added.
The win came despite the absence of veterans Braden Bodnarchuk (illness) and Caleb Allan (injury), who normally start, which meant a little bit of shuffling around.
“Michael Vanderaa, who normally plays right side, shifted over and played left side, which he played remarkably well,” Wilson-Hands lauded.
“Jaxon Gartzke [right side] did not give up on any ball which, in turn, made his defence solid.
“Peyton Avis has really stepped up his setting game,” she noted.
“He is a very skilled setter for his age and I see tremendous things for him in his future volleyball career.”
The squad resumes NorWOSSA play here tomorrow with a noon showdown against the Dryden Eagles.
Wilson-Hands said her players will continue to focus on the small things that will set it apart from the other teams over its final three regular-season matches, starting tomorrow with a noon showdown against the visiting Dryden Eagles.
“Our offensive systems are coming along and we are pretty solid on our defensive systems,” she noted.
She added the team hasn’t been focusing on the similarities or differences between playing Dryden or Kenora.
“But the boys do make a game plan before our games,” Wilson-Hands noted. “We definitely know some tendencies of both teams, so we adjust our defence in regards to that.
“Every team is a different team every time we meet them,” she added.
“I tell the juniors that they [Kenora and Dryden] have been working in their gym and improving, just like we have, so not to take any team lightly but to stick to our game plan and play like we know we can.”
As for the team translating its regular-season success so far into a playoff victory in the NorWOSSA final coming up Nov. 7 in Kenora?
“Focus, as well as mental toughness, will be a huge factor in our success,” Wilson-Hands stressed.
“The boys have got to be able to drown out the large crowd and focus on what needs to be done.
“When they make a mistake, it’s going to be about not self-doubting but finding the ‘good’ in what just happened,” she added.
“It is going to be about keeping our excitement and nerves in the middle of our ‘radar’ and not swaying too much one way,” Wilson-Hands reasoned.
“They want that NorWOSSA championship win, and it’s right there,” she noted.
“They just have to go out and get it.”
Regardless what happens, Wilson-Hands said the team’s improvement over the last month-and-a-half has made the coaching staff hugely proud.
“Quite a few of these young men came into the gym not knowing any systems, how to properly pass, set, serve, or attack,” she noted.
“Push a few weeks ahead and we have athletes annihilating a quick hit, or consistently jump float serving, running the pipe ball, etc.
“It makes me appreciate the work that has been put into this team and the benefit that they’re getting from it.”
Wilson-Hands noted she spoke with one mom who said her son was practising his approach in their kitchen for over an hour.
“This athlete was working on something that he felt he needed to work on, all by himself, away from practice,” she remarked.
“It shows that he is wanting and striving to get better.
“It made me tear up a bit because that solidified that this coaching staff is instilling a love of the game of volleyball in these 15 young men,” Wilson-Hands added.
“It means that we are on the right path in this program.”
