The Lions Western Canadian Challenge is a dress rehearsal for the 3A provincials for the defending volleyball champions from St. Albert Catholic High School.
Last year the lady Skyhawks finished first at the WCC tournament, co-hosted by SACHS and Morinville Community High School, en route to a gold-medal winning performance at provincials.
“We definitely want to repeat. We want to win that big trophy again,” said Grade 12 middle Lauren Cardinal, after the Skyhawks swept the Camrose Trojans 25-20, 25-19 in Thursday’s opening match at the SkyDome.
“A lot of these teams we’ll be playing are like 3A division teams so if we make provincials we’ll be seeing them and that’s why we definitely want to show well in this tourney. We want to see where we are against them because a lot of the tournaments we’ve been in we’ve played against 4A teams.”
The 22nd annual WCC features 12 women’s and 12 men’s teams and the results from pool play determined today’s playoff parings. The playoffs start at 12:45 p.m. for the women at the SkyDome and the men at Morinville. The championship and consolation finals begin at 5:30 p.m.
In previous tournaments, the Skyhawks worked out the kinks in the pre-season competition at the University of Alberta, were victorious at the Tri-Volley in Sherwood Park by defeating a pair of 4A teams, Jasper Place Rebels and Strathcona Lords in the playoffs, and struggled through the Panthers International in Spruce Grove with a skeleton lineup.
Last year’s metro Edmonton division one finalists are also 3-0 (9 GW/3 GL) in pool B after compiling a 1-2 record against pool A teams in exhibition action.
“It’s been going pretty good so far,” Cardinal said. “We definitely have ups and downs but when we’re up it’s really good and our only downs are like little lulls in sets.
“We just need to keep working hard. We have a couple of big games coming up at the end of the season (against the 4A Ross Sheppard Thunderbirds and Jasper Place) and we just need to build off the energy from these wins in tournament and league play.”
The Skyhawks were pushed to the limit by the Paul Blues in last week’s pool B match before prevailing 22-25, 25-17, 22-25, 25-20, 15-6 at the SkyDome.
“We were more nervous than we should’ve been and we could’ve played a little bit better but we stuck it out and got through it,” Cardinal said. “The first set was a bit shaky because I think everyone was nervous, I know I was nervous, and once we got actually playing we were fine. It was probably harder than it was so I felt it was a really good game.
“Paul Kane is really good and strong but we’re pretty strong too and it just came down to who wanted it more and we just wanted it a lot more than they did.”
Cardinal, 17, is among a handful of players remaining from last year’s impressive team that won 44 out of 48 matches in league play, tournaments and provincials. The Skyhawks finished 14-1 (44 GW/15 GL) in division one after losing the final to Jasper Place 25-9, 23-25, 21-25, 25-21, 11-15 and at provincials they dropped only two sets in seven best-of-three matches. The final was a sweeping victory over the St. Joseph’s Ceniahs of Grande Prairie.
“We had an older group last year but this year it’s a younger group so we’re kind of building and getting better,” Cardinal said. “We definitely have the work ethic this year because we really want to go and try and live up to what we did last year and even though there is a lot of new players we still have the mentality to play as we did last year.
“Our offence is really good and we just need to work on our defence a bit better and that’s probably the only main difference between last year’s team.”
The Skyhawks are carving out a winning tradition after winning bronze at the 2013 provincials and last year’s gold medal was the first for SACHS since the 1972 provincial B championship women’s team.
“Definitely there is always pressure when you want to be as good as last year but it’s good to have that type of pressure because it’s something to live up to. If we didn’t have those expectations I feel we wouldn’t be doing as well as we are so it’s good to have the pressure,” Cardinal said.
