Mitch Calvert
The Muskie senior girls’ volleyball team lost for the fourth time to Dryden in NorWOSSA play last Friday, but coach Duane Roen said the team may be peaking at just the right time.
“It’s always been there, it was just a matter of if we were going to put it all together before the end of the season,” Roen noted. “The kids have been getting better all season and Dryden has been good all year, but we’re catching up.”
The Eagles took the first set 25-17 and then rattled off a 9-0 lead to start the second, but the Muskies made of a game of it before losing 25-21.
The black-and-gold then dropped the third set 25-8 but were without starting setter Kayla Windigo, who had a prior commitment that forced her to leave the match early.
“I sensed some stress in the players and coach on the other team, and the girls are very happy with the way they played those first two sets,” Roen noted. “Dryden took three time-outs over those two games, and that hasn’t happened all year, so we’ve got them thinking.”
The seniors dropped to 3-4 in NorWOSSA play with the loss but have long known they will have to go the long route during the league playoffs here this Friday—having to first beat Kenora before advancing to a winner-take-all match with the Eagles for a berth in the NWOSSAA final against Thunder Bay.
Roen said they’ve used games over the last couple of weeks to set the starting roster they’ll take into the playoffs.
“Eight or nine starters right now, and it’s just been focused on deciding who are going to be the ones to run the show,” he stressed. “We’re still sitting at that eight or nine that have that competitive edge that could be out there [Friday].
“When we are starting to get all the kids together on the floor at one time, we are starting to see better results.”
Despite Dryden being the heavy favourite for NorWOSSA gold, Roen cited a prime example of the unpredictability of the one-game elimination format.
“Anything can happen at NorWOSSA,” he admitted. “With the junior boys [volleyball] last year, we had won the last four or five games of the regular season [but] Dryden was able to come back and beat us in the final.”
The Muskie junior girls’ volleyball team, meanwhile, continued their seesaw battle with the Eagles last Friday, losing a five-set nail-biter by scores of 17-25, 25-19, 15-25, 25-20, and 8-15.
Fort High fell to 5-2 while the Eagles sit in first place at 6-2.
Both volleyball teams had one final tune-up yesterday when they hosted the Kenora Broncos in their regular-season finales (the outcomes weren’t unavailable as of press time).
