Joey Payeur
St. Francis School’s volleyball version of the “Furious Five” went a long way on their own merits.
Enter stage left, instead of “Kung Fu Panda,” a cross-over addition from the school’s other on-court entry to help lock down a hard-earned podium finish.
The St. Francis Sentinels ‘A’ squad fought back from a one-set deficit to defeat the Mine Centre Thunderbirds ‘B’ team 2-1 (26-28, 25-19, and 15-13) in the bronze-medal final of the Corey Menson Memorial Grade 8 co-ed volleyball tournament at Fort High on Saturday.
The St. Patrick’s Pats (Atikokan) also rallied from one set down to fend off Onigaming 2-1 (20-25, 25-16, and 15-9) in the championship match.
The Sentinels, due to the mysterious absence of one player, were left to soldier on as a five-person unit for the entire preliminary round.
Yet the quintet of Nicole Lepine, Abbi Perreault, Alexis-Faith Perrault, Ben Whitburn, and Matthew Berube was able to post a 4-2 record to finish third in the standings out of the seven teams participating in the event, which was organized by Mine Centre School as a tribute to Menson, a former student who was killed in a domestic violence incident in 2006.
The Thunderbirds ‘B’ team—the only all-girls’ squad at the tourney due to a lack of boys from the school signing up to play—did well to take the first set by using numerous three-hit attacks to thwart the Sentinels.
But rather than fold up their tent, St. Francis ‘A’ found another gear to strike back and claim the second set.
The third-and-deciding set saw the teams tied multiple times, including as late in the game as 13-13. But the Sentinels won the serve back and then capitalized on a mishit by Mine Centre on match point to cement the victory.
Coach Christine Eby-Jean, filling in admirably for Ron Fryer, who was watching his daughter, Shanleigh, play at a club volleyball tournament in Portage la Prairie, Man. that cost both St. Francis teams several players each, saw her crew get off to a tough start with a 25-14 loss to Onigaming.
But the ‘A’ team rebounded with a 26-24 decision over Mine Centre ‘A’ and then a 25-19 victory over the Our Lady of the Way Voyageurs (Stratton).
St. Francis ‘A’ then beat Mine Centre ‘B’ 25-17 before earning in-school bragging rights with a 25-14 victory over St. Francis ‘B’ to run its win streak to four.
The Sentinels ‘A’ side concluded the preliminary round with a 25-14 loss to St. Pats.
For the playoff round, the Sentinels added Madisyn DeGagne from the St. Francis ‘B’ squad, which was eliminated from playoff contention after going 1-5 and finishing sixth in the round-robin.
St. Francis ‘A’ squared off in the semis with Onigaming, which had finished second in the preliminary round with a 5-1 mark.
That was the same record as the St. Patrick’s Pats, who got the nod for first place by virtue of having beaten Onigaming 25-22 in the head-to-head match during the round-robin.
St. Francis and Onigaming battled back and forth in the opening set, exchanging the lead several times before the Sentinels took what appeared to be a stranglehold on the game at 24-19.
But Onigaming refused to bow down and scored the next seven points to take the first set 26-24.
That seemed to take the steam out of the Sentinels’ ship as Onigaming cruised to a 25-13 victory to sweep the best-of-three semi-final 2-0.
Rough ride
As for the St. Francis ‘B’ crew, it was a difficult day for the six-pack posse of DeGagne, Madyson Weir, Libby Paleczny, Sophie Potvin-Begin, Shawn Brady, and Jacob Bolzan.
The group used to success showed no shortage of heart and hustle, but still came up on the short end of the scoreboard during most of Saturday’s tournament.
The Sentinels soldiered on minus the services of not only those who journeyed to Portage for the club tourney, as well as perhaps their top setter and server, respectively, in Connor Bujold (badminton tourney in Atikokan) and Dane Blais (cycling injury to his heel the previous evening).
Mine Centre ‘B’ gave St. Francis ‘B’ a taste of what was to come with a 25-22 win over the Sentinels to kick off the morning before St. Francis was dumped 25-17 by Mine Centre ‘A.’
Next came a 25-14 loss to St. Pat’s and a 25-10 thumping from Onigaming.
But after falling to their St. Francis schoolmates, the ‘B’ squad salvaged the day by building a big lead against Our Lady of the Way and eventually nailing down a 25-14 triumph.
The Mine Centre ‘B’ squad ignored its lack of a male presence to squeak into the playoffs in fourth place—ironically, at the expense of Mine Centre ‘A.’
Both teams finished the round-robin at 3-3, but Mine Centre ‘B’ won the game it had to in its final preliminary match-up against the Thunderbird ‘A’ team with a 25-14 victory.
The ‘B’ squad also beat Our Lady of the Way 25-14 while losing to St. Pat’s (25-16) and Onigaming (25-15).
A rematch against St. Pat’s in the semi-final also went against Mine Centre ‘B,’ who were swept 2-0 (25-15 and 25-6).
The Thunderbirds ‘A’ team was the only squad to get the better of St. Pat’s (25-20).
They also dropped Our Lady of the Way 25-9 while being edged in a 31-29 thriller by Onigaming.
Meanwhile, for the Voyageurs, featuring a roster of mostly Grade 7s due to only having five Grade 8s total attending the school, showed a level of sportsmanship and determination that warranted better than their 0-6 record and last-place result.
Our Lady of the Way, along with the losses to the two St. Francis and two Mine Centre squads, also were nipped 25-22 by Onigaming and downed 25-16 by St. Pat’s.
The tournament was the only event of the brief co-ed volleyball season as the other tournament scheduled for April 2 at J.W. Walker was bumped in favour of the school’s science fair.
The Menson Memorial originally was slated for April 16, but was delayed for reasons unknown as of press time.
