Spartans advance to volleyball city final
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The Neelin Spartans found their way into the Brandon High School Volleyball League championship series on Tuesday, while receiving a stern reminder that no team can be taken lightly at this point in the year.
The Spartans defeated the visiting Crocus Plainsmen 3-1 (25-19, 25-19, 24-26, 25-21) in the semifinal, but had a commanding lead in the third set before not only losing that one, but also coming close to a fifth.
“It was a good game. We could have done better and pushed hard,” said Neelin middle blocker Jayda Davidson.
“We play really good against teams that match our skill level or are a little bit better than us. We could improve on doing better against teams that don’t really match our skill level as much, but I do think it was a really good game.”
Davidson and the Spartans starters controlled the match for the first two sets, and some of them took a breather in the third, but the backups opened up a near double-digit lead until a remarkable Plainsmen serving run brought them back.
Neelin’s A-line came back and got the job done, with Davidson posting five kills and senior middle blocker Elli Pomehichuk recording a team-high six. The Spartans attack through the middle more than most teams in Manitoba, something Davidson has grown accustomed to for the past few years.
“I’ve mostly had Josee (Martine) as my setter, so I’ve been set a lot,” Davidson said. “She’s really good mentally, so it’s good to play with her because she can reset if she makes a mistake and she always knows where to set the ball.
“It’s definitely really fun. We have some really good passers on our team, so it’s really good when it goes straight to the setter, then it usually comes to us.”
The Spartans are off to the best-of-three league final against the Vincent Massey Vikings.
They’re certainly feeling good after last weekend, when they finished third at the Pembina Trails tournament. Neelin swept its pool, with wins over Linden Christian and Westgate, ranked first and fourth in AAA, respectively.
Before the championship series, they’ll host the Spartan Dig this Friday and Saturday, which features 96 teams between the varsity girls and boys events.
“We’re so excited. We really hope we do well and play our best against all these teams,” Davidson said.
“We really want to work on ourselves mentally. We hope we can all reset better from points. If we do that, we’re going to do really good.”
On Monday, the Spartans JV girls defeated the Plainsmen 3-1 in their semifinal. The Neelin boys came back to upset the Plainsmen 3-2, with the fifth set going to 15-13.
» tfriesen@brandonsun.com