Strathcona Composite High School – Losing the Edmonton zone showdown to the No. 1 ranked 4A women’s high school volleyball team in Alberta was a wake-up call for the Paul Kane Blues.
The Scona Lords humbled the two-time Metro Edmonton Premier Conference champions in three sets Wednesday in the ranking game for provincial seeding at next week’s 4A tournament.
“We’re not happy with the loss. We came in here expecting to do well,” said Stan Andronyk, head coach of the fourth-ranked Blues. “We were playing a great team and it was our opportunity to compete with them and have a good match. We’ll learn from it and we’ll practice well and prepare for next week.”
The host team for provincials played a near flawless match to sweep the Blues 25-15, 25-20, 25-17.
“We were prepared. We won our league [with a 10-1 record] and cities [swept the Bev Facey Falcons] and we knew this was next. We thought if we played well we had a shot, but we just weren’t quite there today. It just didn’t work out,” Andronyk said.
The Blues had won 10 in a row, including three playoff sweeps, until the second loss in 15 matches snapped their winning streak.
“It’s not so bad to have things go wrong every now and then,” Andronyk said. “We’ve been on top of the world lately. We had two or three good weeks where we played really well and everything we tried worked.”
The Lords and Blues will be seeded first and second, respectively, in the zone when provincials start Thursday. Facey and Harry Ainlay Titans will also represent the zone in the 16-team draw.
“It would’ve been nice to be tops in Edmonton, but second out of Edmonton is still pretty great,” said Jill Tymko, a Grade 12 power hitter. “We can’t really blame anybody but ourselves because we didn’t play our game today.”
The Blues played Scona three times in tournaments and won only one set. They lost quite handily in two sets at the University of Alberta preseason event. At Bev Facey it was 2-1 in the semifinal, with the third set 15-13. The round robin match at Harry Ainlay ended 28-26 in the second set.
“We haven’t played them in a long time so we thought this could be our game,” Tymko said. “We were so close against them the last time so we felt if we really push hard we could maybe win it.”
The Edmonton public league champions had an easy time knocking off the lethargic-looking Blues. Scona repeatedly pounded the ball without fear of getting blocked as the Blues conceded the net. The back row faced a barrage of shots, forcing the Blues to dig deep to keep the ball in play.
The longest point run of the match by the Blues was four in a row in the second set.
“They’re a very skilled team. They’ve got a lot of size. They’re good blockers. They can pass. Their outside hitters hit really well,” Andronyk said. “They’ve got a lot of different plays. They ran some middle and some quick balls against us. To beat them you have to be on top of your game. You have to find a weakness in them and exploit it.”
The Blues will now regroup for their third straight trip to provincials.
“We’re all really pumped for it,” said Tymko. “We can’t wait, especially since its in Edmonton. We can have our supporters here. It’s going to be really great.”
At last year’s provincials the Blues won two and lost five, including their last three matches, to finish eighth. In 2009 they placed seventh with a 4-3 record.
“This year we want to win it and we’re going to be pushing really hard,” said Tymko. “This loss makes us want to come out harder for sure. Hopefully we can play Scona again and show them our game.”
Andronyk is confident the Blues will be in the medal hunt.
“I’ve got a great feeling about our team this year,” said the third-year coach.
