Massey sweeps Sturgeon to return to final

Ashley Sullivan admits she wasn’t serving her best for the last few weeks.

It turns out she was saving the good ones for the most important moments. Sullivan walloped seven aces as the Vincent Massey Vikings bounced the Sturgeon Heights Huskies 3-0 (25-23, 25-18, 25-8) in the semifinals of the AAAA varsity girls volleyball provincial championship at the University of Manitoba on Wednesday.

“Before the game, I told my team, ‘I’m going to make every single serve.’ Back there, I wanted to still serve hard but serve in and I was able to do my hardest serve consistently,” said Sullivan, who recorded an ace on the very first serving run of the match.

“It definitely uplifted me and gave me a lot more confidence to continue serving hard for the rest of the game.”

The defending champions will play for the title on Monday at the U of M at 6 p.m., against the winner of the top-ranked Mennonite Brethren Hawks and No. 4 Jeanne-Sauve Olympiens, who were still on the court at press time.

Massey went in as the top seed last year, but needed to come back and survive a wild five-set semifinal before knocking off CJS 3-1 for gold.

This year, the No. 2-ranked Vikings look much more comfortable on the big stage.

“I was really happy with the way the rookies on the team played,” said head coach Kelly DeRoo. “They all were calm and collected and that has a big thing to do with the older girls on the team that played in the final last year. They led by example and everybody did a great job.

“Nobody was nervous.”

Sullivan and Kaitlyn Couckuyt served the Vikings to a 9-1 lead without needing to attack much as the Huskies were unable to get any offence going.

Massey stayed ahead 16-6 and appeared to have the opening set in the bag, but Sturgeon fought back and forced it out of system over and over on a sneaky six-point run to encourage DeRoo to use her first timeout up just 16-12.

The Huskies missed the following serve, and the Vikings didn’t clean up their game much, but the Winnipeg squad needed to be much closer to perfect to overcome the deficit and simply made enough errors to give Massey six set points.

It needed all six before Couckuyt dished a perfect pass from Zoe Redekop to opposite Hayden Wharf to finally seal it.

“The first set, we struggled a bit with our serve receive,” DeRoo said.

“We managed to keep the ball in play, but we did an amazing job blocking that first set, espeically Ella VanDaele.

“That was the catalyst to win that one.”

The Huskies only spotted the Vikings a four-point lead early in the second set, but weren’t able to string enough points to narrow the gap.

Massey led 14-9 when Redekop stepped back to the service line and blasted back-to-back aces.

This time, the Vikings stayed calm, kept the ball in play and scored when the opportunities presented themselves. They led 24-18 again, and closed it out on their first set point to make it 2-0.

“Second and third set, our serve receive got better, our offence got better and we kept blocking well, so it went really well,” DeRoo said.

It was all Vikings in the third set as they dominated at the net, piling up kills and blocks en route to a 10-3 lead while Huskies coach Ryan Vermette cooked both of his timeouts.

Redekop blasted away at the net to open up a 19-6 advantage, then Sullivan uncorked one of the hardest middle attacks of the night.

The middle blocker finished the match just like she started, serving nearly untouchable bullets on a five-point run, including back-to-back aces to complete the sweep.

“It was amazing,” Sullivan said. “I looked at the score at 8-20 and knew I wanted to serve it all the way to the (end). I was giving it all I had and I’m happy I did it for my team.

“My other middle Ella VanDaele did an amazing job blocking. Hayden Wharf did an amazing job on right side and I’m so proud of everybody.”

Hannah McGregor led the team with 10 kills while Wharf posted seven and Redekop added six. VanDaele recorded three blocks.

The Vikings, who swept the Kelvin Clippers on home court in the quarterfinals on Saturday, get to be one of just two girls teams in the province to extend their time together into December.

They’ll be back on the practice court at least three times before making the drive back down the Trans Canada Highway to chase one more banner.

It’s safe to say they’re loving every second.

“My closest friends and my best friends are on this team and I’ve played with them forever. That’s what happens when you’re from a smaller city,” Sullivan said.

“Having even just three more practices with them as a team, I’m forever grateful for.”

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