Junior boys looking to next year

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.”
One of the most famous opening lines in literature (penned by Charles Dickens in “Tale of Two Cities“) was quoted by Muskie junior boys’ volleyball head coach Greg Ste. Croix when asked to recap a winless season that ended with a loss to Kenora in the NorWOSSA semi-final here Friday.
“I just told the team to keep their heads up,” Ste. Croix said after the 3-1 loss in the best-of-five showdown. “We had a great season. We are not a 0-9 team, but today Kenora just took it to us.
“We didn’t come to play at the same level and intensity that they had.
“When you get behind the way we did early, it’s tough battling and sometimes it gets insurmountable,” Ste. Croix added. “We came back in the third game, which we hoped would swing the whole match in our favour, but it didn’t.”
After dropping the first two games by scores of 25-14 and 25-6, the black-and-gold rallied for a 25-21 victory in the third one to bring them new life and new confidence.
“We were just sleeping in the first couple of games. We just didn’t do anything right,” said Scott Gurski. “Balls were dropping left and right on us, but in the third game we just started all over and took it to them.”
“I think a lot of people were still kind of nervous and that’s why we got going slow,” remarked Jordan York. “But afterwards, as you could tell, after we got our first game, everyone was just pumped and really into it.”
But the Broncos, who went on to lose 3-1 to the Dryden Eagles in the final later Friday, came back in the fourth game and end the Muskies’ chances of brightening a gloomy season, which began with high expectations.
“All year we’ve been slow to start. We’ve come on in the third and fourth games,” noted Shaun Love.
“Today [Friday], we just couldn’t get behind the ball, and the passing was a little off, our setting was off, and because of that we couldn’t get a hit,” he added.
“I’m really disappointed. I feel that I could’ve played better, and I feel I should’ve left it all out on the floor,” Love stressed.
Before the season began, the Muskies had put many expectations on themselves—one of which was winning NorWOSSA. And though they were competitive in matches, it seemed they just couldn’t find their way when the opening whistle blew.
“The 0-9 record doesn’t mean anything at all. I know that we didn’t get the win officially, but it’s not showing our true potential,” said York.
“We did go out and take a lot of matches into the fifth game, so it goes to show you that we could’ve had a win,” he added. “We just had a hard time finishing it off.”
But one positive that did come from the season, said Ste. Croix, was the development of new players like Garnett Cornell, Scott Barker, Morgan Anderson, Jon McCoy, and Logan Allen, who all will be taking on greater roles next year.
And though they lost each match, they still gave an effort.
“We are a lot better, but we just can’t show it sometimes,” said Gurski. “It’s weird because if we played like we can, then we could beat any team.
“But we just don’t start out strong, and it takes a couple of games to get going, and then we take it to them, but by then, it’s too late
“It’s just one of those things,” he added.