The third city championship in a row was better than expected for the Sir George Simpson Voyageurs.
“Most people thought we weren’t going to win and we did,” said co-captain Jamie Grimshaw after Simpson stunned the undefeated Richard S. Fowler Falcons in the St. Albert Physical Education Council junior high volleyball final Thursday. “We were very much the underdogs. People didn’t even expect us to win our semifinal and look where we are. We won finals.”
Simpson, the third playoff seed in the girls’ division, finished the best-of-five Tier I championship in a blaze of glory after dropping the opening set by 15 points at Bellerose Composite High School.
“We said we didn’t want to go home without a trophy,” Grimshaw said of the bounce-back 10-25, 25-11, 25-22, 25-17 effort against Fowler, 10-1 (31 GW/9 GL) in the SAPEC league and 28-2 overall after losing its second final in three years to Simpson.
“We did expect to do better than we did in the finals but sometimes things just don’t work out,” said Elizabeth Salcedo, a Grade 9 setter for Fowler. “In the first set we were really, really on and we were playing phenomenally. The second set we started making very silly mistakes and from that point in the (rest of the) sets our mistakes carried us downhill. We got way too negative about the whole thing and it was really hard to come out of the hole that we were in.
“We just didn’t really play well,” Salcedo added. Their offence was pretty strong and our defence wasn’t really there.”
In the semifinals, Simpson rallied from the depths of despair to oust the No. 2 Vincent J. Maloney Marauders (8-2) 23-25, 17-25, 25-23, 25-23, 15-12 before defending its championship crown against the team to beat.
“We played them twice this season and we lost to them (including the 20-25, 25-12, 25-15, 12-25, 2-15 match in league play) so we were kind of nervous going into this game, but we just gave it our all and pushed through,” said Erin Paradis, a Grade 9 middle and Simpson’s recipient of the St. Albert Sturgeon Volleyball Association player of the game award.
Amelia Russo, a Grade 9 middle, was selected Fowler’s player of the game.
Fowler, the SAPEC tournament winner, looked like world beaters in the first set with a pair of six-point runs for a sizable 14-3 advantage as Emma Morrison led the way with a handful of points from the middle position.
Down 18-5, Simpson stacked five points together before Fowler rattled off seven straight as Salcedo’s strong serving closed out the set.
Down but not out, Simpson regrouped while grinding out the points during a 12-5 start in the second set that featured a five-point run on the strength of Zoe Kosloski’s serving before Fowler called a timeout down by seven.
After a block by Kosloski made it 17-11, Simpson finished off the set with Kiera Husky’s steady serving and the last three points were off hits by Zoe Sauter.
“We were passing well and communicating a lot better,” said Paradis of the turnaround. “We had to restart, shake it off and just forget everything that happened in that first set and just give it our all again.”
Simpson never looked back after pulling even with Fowler.
“We got into our groove and started playing our game and from there we kept going using the momentum and we came out on top,” said Grimshaw, a Grade 9 setter. “We finally found our game. Everybody encouraged everybody and nobody was getting down on each other.”
In the third set, Fowler led by as much as five twice in the early stages before Simpson jumped ahead to stay with a five-point push, culminating with an ace by Paradis for the 15-13 advantage.
As the set wound down, marginal point runs by both teams kept the score close, but a combination of serves into the net and erratic hitting by Fowler allowed Simpson to pad its lead. The set-clinching point was a serve by Paradis that Fowler was unable to return.
Simpson ramped it up in the fourth set with key aces by Husky, Kosloski and Paradis, plus the net presence of Kosloski, Sauter and Sarah Nowell kept Simpson in front of Fowler from beginning to end.
A pivotal play was a ball directed towards Fowler by libero Mia Leedell that hit the top of the net and dropped straight down to the floor to up the count to 15-9.
Kosloski, a handful in the middle for Fowler to control, pumped up the Simpson fans by burying a dig by Husky with gusto to get the party started at 23-14.
“We just used all the energy we had (from the second set) and kept going,” said Paradis, 14.
Fowler looked like a team suffering from stage fright in its quest for the first SAPEC girls' volleyball championship in school history. According to head coach Damon Clayton, Fowler never missed more than four serves in any set all year until it misfired on 23 serves in the last three sets of the final.
“Nerves were definitely a factor. We were all extremely nervous. Coming in undefeated is hard to live up to,” said Salcedo, 14.
Simpson, with six returnees from the last year’s 10-1 team that swept the Lorne Akins Gators in the final, wrapped up its 14th SAPEC volleyball championship banner with a mark of 9-2 (31 GW/11 GL).
The SAPEC record for the girls’ banners is 14 by Vincent J. Maloney, including seven in a row from 1976 to 1982.
“It’s so exciting. It’s unbelievable. It’s three years now and we kept the streak going,” said Grimshaw, 14.
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the Simpson team picture.
