The pressure was on the Sir George Simpson boys to duplicate the lady Voyageurs’ undefeated championship season Thursday and they delivered with a sweeping victory at the SAPEC Tier 1 volleyball finals.
After a tight 26-24 opener, Simpson won the next two sets handily by identical 25-16 scores against the over-matched Vincent J. Maloney Marauders at Bellerose Composite High School.
“There was huge pressure. We wanted to win after the girls won,” said Nick Sorensen, a Grade 9 setter and right-side attacker. “Both of our teams wanted to win tonight and it’s awesome to do it for the school.”
The city title was only the third for the boys in school history and the first since 2008.
“This means a ton. Everybody wanted it really bad,” said captain Noah Cunningham. “It’s really big for the school. I know everyone at the school wanted to be here to cheer us on so we had to get the job done to make it a good evening and we’re really happy that we did it.”
Simpson finished 10-0 in league and playoffs combined. Maloney was the only team to win a set against Simpson in last month’s 25-13, 18-25, 25-11, 25-13 victory by the Voyageurs.
“We just have a great all-around team. Some of our players haven’t played before and all the credit in the world to our coach (Brad Wolter). He developed every one of us to take us to the place where we are right now,” said Cunningham, an explosive hitter and deadly server.
Last year Simpson was undefeated going into the final, but was upset in five sets by the William D. Cuts Crusaders.
“We didn’t win last year so this feels really good,” said Cunningham, one of six returning players on the roster. “It was just a great team effort. We worked all season for this and it’s really rewarding to finally get it.”
In the final Simpson was never in any serious trouble, except for the late stages of the first set when Maloney grabbed its second lead of the set at 24-23 during a 5-1 point surge.
Simpson buckled down to tie it with a blast by Cunningham off a block, followed by Jaedon Carroll’s unreturnable serve and two gutsy digs by the diminutive Eric Rolheiser during a long rally that ended with a miscue by Maloney at the net for the set-clinching point.
The next two sets brought out the best in Cunningham, Simpson’s top gun, as well as middle Caleb Brochu and Carroll at power for a quick end to the match.
“We just got progressively better. We knew VJM (7-3) was going to be a tough opposition and they showed it in the first set and then we just came through and played like we could and that was that,” said Cunningham, a club player with the St. Albert Saints who will spike the ball for the Paul Kane Blues next year.
Sorensen described the victory as a team effort, with Cunningham leading the charge.
“Everybody did a really good job of hitting, passing and setting,” Sorensen said. “But our strength was probably hitting because of Noah.”
