Spikers fall short in semi-finals

It was a disappointing end for the Muskie junior and senior boys’ volleyball teams as both were knocked out of further contention early Friday at the NorWOSSA playoffs in Kenora.
 A mix of mental mistakes and miscommunication haunted the junior boys’ team late into their match, which ended with the host Broncos prevailing in five sets.
After Kenora won the first set 25-21, the Muskies charged back to take the second and third sets by scores of 25-20 and 25-22.
But they could not finish off the Broncos, who won the fourth set 25-20 before winning the fifth-and-deciding one by a score of 15-11.
“It was a terrific match,” head coach Greg Ste. Croix said later in the day. “A lot of improvement from earlier in the season.”
The first set, however, saw many serving mistakes by the Muskies, giving the Broncos an early advantage not only mentally but on the scoreboard.
Then after playing a near flawless set, the beginnings of the mental mistakes started in the third set. By the end of it, the players were all over the net and not communicating well like in the previous set.
It was a rough start for the junior squad in the fourth set—making many mental mistakes.
“It was the basic mental mistakes: crossing the line when serving, net violations, the basics,” Ste. Croix said.
“You cannot give anyone, especially Kenora, an opportunity like that,” he stressed.
The fifth set saw the same mistakes as the previous two. The players did not have their heads in the games, especially the veterans.
“It was a mixture of mistakes made by veterans and rookie players,” noted Ste. Croix. “The veteran players are suppose to play the role as veterans.”
At the end of the day, there was great disappointment in both the coach and the players—but great optimism for the next year’s volleyball season.
In senior boys’ action Friday, the Muskies made similar mental mistakes as their junior counterparts, dropping the best-of-five match 3-1 to the host Broncos by scores of 18-25, 27-25, 21-25, and 22-25.
“I was impressed with the rookies on the team,” head coach Brian Love said later in the day.
“All four sets were very hard-fought, a couple of them very close,” he added.
In the first set, the seniors faced many miscommunication problems, which led to broken plays. The second set saw fewer mistakes, which translated into a comeback victory by the Muskies.
“We took the second set because we did everything right,” noted Love. “There were fewer mental letdowns at the critical points which led to the win.”
In the third set, Fort High battled with bad calls from the ref, causing them to miscommunicate and lose focus. The final set of the match saw the senior squad struggle to stay focused.
“The guys played hard but they did have a few mental letdowns at the critical points in the sets,” Love remarked. “It was a game of inches.”
Although the squad had hoped to advance to the final against the Dryden Eagles, Love still was very pleased with the way the team played and was proud to be a part of it this season.