Vikings atop province; Spartans sweep Plainsmen

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This article was published 01/11/2022 (1067 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Vincent Massey Vikings entered the varsity girls’ volleyball season with sky-high expectations. Now they’re almost sure to enter AAAA provincials with the biggest target on their backs.

The Vikings captured the St. Vital Invitational title on Saturday and with it became the first Brandon girls team to hold the No. 1 ranking in AAAA at any point since the 2013 Neelin Spartans.

Massey swept the third-ranked Oak Park Raiders 3-0 (25-20, 26-24, 25-18) in the gold-medal match.

“It was pretty awesome, it was a cool feeling, pretty hard to put into words,” said senior setter Ava Plamondon.

“We were making this our tryout for provincials to see where we were going to line up with all the teams. We always knew we could compete with them and this weekend showed we were one of the top teams.”

Left side Ella Werbiski was named MVP, with Ryan DeGroot and Mackenzie Lyburn earning all-star nods after the gruelling three-day event.

The Vikings won the second-toughest power pool on Thursday with victories over Jeanne-Sauve and No. 10 Westwood and a split with Oak Park. On Friday, they swept J.H. Bruns and No. 5 Sturgeon Heights in the knockout stage to reach Saturday’s semifinals.

They switch to best-of-five matches for the final day, and the Vikings came back to beat Winnipeg’s Vincent Massey Trojans (No. 2) by a score of 3-1 (23-25, 25-15, 25-23, 25-13).

“We maintained really good energy throughout the whole thing,” Plamondon said. “We never really got down on ourselves and a big thing was our passing was really great this weekend. (Libero) Lexi (Brown) was really good for us in the back. Good passing led to good sets, good hits and just good energy all around.”

This year, the Vikings only see other high-end teams when they visit Winnipeg — or host the Viking Classic — and they’re done with their tournament slate. The good news is it’ll be tough to justify them as less than the top seed in the 12-team provincial championship, which starts on Nov. 24.

The downside is the only meaningful matches Massey plays are the best-of-three city final starting next week against Neelin, which swept Crocus Plains 3-0 (25-11, 25-8, 25-18) in the semifinal on Tuesday as Jada McMillan picked up five kills and two aces and Jordis Reynolds added four kills and an ace.

The Vikings might schedule some exhibition matches but the key, Plamondon said, will be to bring intensity to training.

“How you practise is how you play,” Plamondon said. “That’s been our mojo the whole year so if we really keep that up in practices until provincials, that’s a big key to our success.”

The Vikings have the size to compete with anyone, boasting six starters close to or taller than six-foot. Plamondon has her veterans in Werbiski, DeGroot and middle blocker Tiana Low to look to in key situations.

Massey also has a ton of depth with Grade 11s ready to step in and sophomore Jersey Hansen-Young, who has stepped up in a starting left-side role.

“Without everyone, we wouldn’t be where we are,” Plamondon said.

• • •

The wide-open Brandon High School Volleyball League varsity boys division had a shocker on Tuesday.

After all three teams beat each other at some point in league or tournament play and the matches seldom went fast, the 1-3 Spartans thumped the 2-2 Plainsmen 3-0 (25-23, 25-20, 25-20) to book their ticket to the final against Massey.

“Felt good. We were able to turn it around, took ‘em in three. It was a great team win,” said Aiden Macsymach, who put down the match-winning kill. “We had good passes tonight, we were able to get some good sets and overall played well as a team.”

The Spartans broke a 23-23 tie in the first set on Nathaniel Berube’s crafty shot off the block and out, then ended it on an Adam Sylvestre ace.

They snuck ahead after it was 20-19 in the second set with terrific defence and transition play to turn long rallies into clutch kills, ending on Josh Gamache’s smooth tip just over the block.

Then their stout defence forced a few untimely Plainsmen errors early in the third and they refused to let the match get close from there.

“That’s something we do every day in practice so it’s good to see that it’s working in-game,” Macsymach said of Neelin’s transition offence.

The Spartans have a chance to end a Vikings’ city final streak that dates back to before they set foot in their high school.

“We gotta go out there and do our jobs to win. I think we’re going to have to go hard at them.

“Definitely just swinging at them,” Macsymach said of the key to beating Massey. “A lot of the time we get good hits and they’re going straight into the ground and they’re not able to receive them. As long as we keep swinging at them, we’re not just putting over free balls, it’s going to be a good game.”

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