St. Albert girls volleyball teams are on a serious winning streak.
On Tuesday night the St. Albert junior girls team won the Edmonton metro league Division 2 championship 3- 2 against rival Lillian Osborne. On Monday, the St. Albert Catholic High School (SACHS) senior girls team won against Beaumont 3-0, setting them up for a Division 2 championship game against Lillian Osborne on Wednesday night.
Both teams won all 10 of their metro Edmonton league games, making them undefeated in league play this year.
It’s all thanks to some top-notch talent, said coach Rob Rubuliak.
“St. Albert high schools have been pretty successful these last few years, and I attribute a lot of that to the junior high volleyball programs,” Rubuliak said. “And the club system in St. Albert is pumping kids up into the high schools in St. Albert and Sturgeon County that are just fantastic athletes.”
He said that more students are also getting interested in pursuing volleyball because of university scholarships.
The MVP of Monday’s semi-final game against Beaumont was middle Devin Chalupa, according to Rubuliak.
“0.667 was her killed percentage,” he said. “A really good middle at the post-secondary level would hit about a 0.400… and [she did 0.667] with zero errors. So two out of every three balls that she hit was a kill.”
A close runner-up was team captain and outside hitter Makenna Diprose.
“Coming into this season, we weren’t sure where we were going to fit,” said Diprose, a Grade 12 SACHS student. “We had a bunch of girls that had never played together. And we formed a really special bond.”
Diprose said that although the team has had some tough games this season, they’ve always come out on top thanks to their love of the game.
“One of the biggest hurdles was just feeling how everyone plays together and working together,” she said.
“One game that stood out to me was a game against Lillian Osborne…. They had a big crowd, they had the big energy in the gym. I think we really had to step up to be able to persevere through that game.”
The SACHS team hasn’t made provincials yet; they have more games to go against other teams competing in 3A volleyball until they (potentially) hit that milestone.
“We put in a lot of work this season, and a lot of time,” Diprose said. “I’m most excited to see how far we can go and where we can take everything we’ve learned.”
