Vikings go back-to-back

WINNIPEG — The Jeanne-Sauve Olympiens fans made a big mistake, calling Hannah McGregor “Overrated.”

For nearly two hours on Monday, the Vincent Massey Vikings superstar proved she was absolutely, without a doubt, Manitoba’s best high school girls’ volleyball player.

McGregor heard the noise, hammered a huge kill, then acknowledged the crowd with a smile that instantly showed she would not be rattled during the AAAA provincial final at the University of Manitoba’s Investors Group Athletic Centre.

McGregor posted an astonishing 26 kills, four aces and 13 digs as the Vikings beat the Olympiens in the final for the second year in a row, 3-1 (25-15, 26-24, 23-25, 25-17).

“It was amazing. It just gave me more fuel to play harder,” the tournament MVP McGregor said of the chants.

The six-foot-one outside hitter started as a sophomore last year and was the catalyst the Vikings needed early in the provincial final.

This year, she was the engine.

“She’s an amazing athlete,” said Massey head coach Kelly DeRoo. “I kind of figured she’d go off in this match and just score, and they weren’t able to shut her down, so (setter) Kaitlyn (Couckuyt) and I had a conversation that unless they start digging her, we might as well just keep giving her the ball.”

While McGregor isn’t used a ton in the back row, Jeanne-Sauve didn’t get much relief during those rotations, as outside hitter Zoe Redekop was also exceptional.

The five-foot-nine senior may not have quite the same attack speed as McGregor, but she was as precise as she was fearless, tacking on 15 kills en route to a tournament all-star selection.

“Zoe does such a great job on out-of-system high sets. She scored on a few that I thought she was just going to roll out of court, but she swung for the fences, and she scored, so it was great,” DeRoo said.

“The first two sets, even, our passing wasn’t great. End of the third, we started passing better, and we weren’t running our middle as much because of our serve receive, so the fact that Hannah and Zoe are able to just find the ball and put it away on a set from the deep corner … it’s a big help in a match.”

The Vikings took the No. 2 seed, earning a bye to the quarterfinals. They quickly dispatched the Kelvin Clippers in straight sets on home court on Nov. 22, then defeated the third-ranked Sturgeon Heights Huskies 3-0 on Wednesday to reach the final.

Jeanne-Sauve was the fourth seed and beat No. 12 Garden City 3-1 in the quarterfinals. It reverse-swept the top-ranked Mennonite Brethren Hawks 3-2 in the semifinals.

The championship nerves were evident on both sides early, with the Olympiens making a few unforced errors early to trail 5-2. The Vikings gave a few points back to let it get tied 6-6.

But soon after, Hayden Wharf stepped back and served a massive six-point run to pull ahead 14-7. The Vikings did their damage while Manitoba’s No. 3-ranked player Celeste Pelletier was stuck in the back row. The setter/opposite was running the offence that desperately needed her scoring, while the other setter/opposite, Leah Derkatch, didn’t record a kill.

Ashley Sullivan served the Olympiens into more trouble and stretched a 16-10 lead to 21-10.

By the time Pelletier was back to her spot at the net, the set was all but over.

“After the first set, I thought I played really good so I thought Kaitlyn would give me a few more extra balls, but I was confident that everybody could play good,” McGregor said.

“Reece (Cowan), our (libero), she gets up everything, and I feel like she needs more recognition, but … everybody plays their part and we wouldn’t be here without everybody on our team.”

Massey fell into a 5-2 hole in the second set but kept plugging away and tied it 8-8.

The match stayed air-tight, with the Vikings leading 18-16 when Sophia Hullick subbed in to serve two huge aces in a row for Massey, on both sides of a Jeanne-Sauve timeout.

The Olympiens erased that four-point lead in a hurry on a few bad Viking passes and strong block defence on McGregor, who was more or less unstoppable to that point.

However, McGregor simply hit an even sharper cross-court shot after CJS tied it 22-22, painting the sideline to pull ahead. Then the best player in the province took an out-of-system set three metres off the net and chipped it down the line, off the block and out to bring up set point.

McGregor got blocked two points later, but scored off hands to retake the lead, then did it again to end the set and lead 2-0.

Pelletier led Jeanne-Sauve to success in the third as it raced ahead 10-4 in the third before Hullick launched a few more aces to narrow the gap. Massey tied it 12-12, but undid all its hard work on two quick scoring runs and trailed 18-13.

McGregor blasted a kill to send herself back to the service line down 20-15, then, as the Olympiens’ faithful chanted “Overrated” each time she stepped back with the ball in her hands, she served seven straight points with two aces and a few big-time Redekop kills before catching the back line on a back-row attack to pull ahead 21-20.

The Vikings led 23-21, but missed a serve and shanked two passes to fall behind and ultimately lose the set, keeping the Olympiens alive for a fourth.

DeRoo knew CJS was capable of overcoming a big deficit after the semifinal, but refocused her group well.

“I just reminded our girls that we’re here to win the match and we just need to win one more set, so that was our focus — worry about our side of the court, eliminate our errors and make sure that we’re scoring, and they were able to do that. They kind of just forgot about the third set and refocused themselves,” DeRoo said.

The Vikings turned it around with their defence.

After McGregor scored cross-court and down the line, McGregor and Wharf made back-to-back blocks to lead 6-2. Ella VanDaele and Sullivan got in on the block party for a few more to go up 9-3.

The large cushion proved helpful to shake off a few errors that otherwise could have rattled the Vikings more. They were able to laugh them off and keep getting into perfect positions to block, then find open court to tip when their big swings weren’t working.

The Vikings couldn’t help but smile between points with a 22-14 lead. They could see the end — the one they worked so hard for — in sight, and just had fun with it.

“I just think when we’re having fun, that brings out the best in all of us, and that really brought out the best in me,” Redekop said.

Massey got a little too excited and hammered the ball well out of the court on two championship points, but McGregor put the finishing touch on it with plenty of points to spare.

“This feels unreal right now,” Redekop said. “I’m just really grateful for this experience and to make it here with the people that were by my side through it all. That just really means a lot.

“Our whole team tried to look at it as the butterflies being more of an excitement and ‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.’ We have to feel that, over the nervousness that it could also be. Taking that and being confident with it really brought us to the end.”

Hullick finished with five aces, while Cowan made 10 digs and VanDaele posted four blocks.

The future is up in the air for McGregor, who’s moving to Saskatoon in the new year to play for Huskie Volleyball Club.

But she knew she wanted to deliver at least one more time for Massey, and she certainly did.

“It was amazing. I feel like in Grade 10 I was a bit more nervous but I knew my role this year and I was pretty calm all game,” McGregor said.

“I think that was my best game today and I’m happy I got to finish it off like that.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com