MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM — The Vanier Spirits expected to find themselves in a tough battle against the Cornerstone Christian School Falcons in the Moose Jaw High Schools Athletic Association city final on Wednesday night, and that’s exactly how things turned out.
But in the end, the Spirits had finished in first place in the regular season for a reason, and that winning pedigree shone through as the match progressed.
Cornerstone would find a way to make things close each set, but Vanier would take a 25-18, 22-25, 25-19, 25-21 victory to repeat as MJHSAA city champions in front of a raucous crowd at Sask Polytech.
“It was a good game, Cornerstone is a really, really good team,” said Spirits coach Aly Bell “We battled with them all season, they were our only loss this season, so coming in as confident as we were, I knew we had to play well and consistently and thankfully we did. So I’m super happy.”
While the Spirits were able to keep the Falcons out of the 20s in two of their sets, it was the second game that showed just how dangerous Cornerstone could be. Vanier was able to regroup quickly, though, and things largely went smooth for the champs from there.
“We just had to keep our energy up, it’s something we’ve been struggling with all year,” Bell said of the lost set. “So when we can get the girls pumped up and stay pumped up, we’re good to go.”
The contest was the final MJHSAA game for Grade 12 Waverley Demassi, and she played like it. The Spirits outside hitter was lethal all game and had a host of big kills that helped snuff any momentum Cornerstone created.
“I thought it went well,” Demassi said as dozens of fans from both teams gathered to take pictures. “We were kind of bad on our serve receive, so we need to better there, and we have to make sure that we stay high and stay positive, and a lot of that is our mental game as well.
But I thought everyone did really good and I’m really proud of the girls.”
Demassi is also the lone Grade 12 on the team, making her one of the few repeat champions on the squad.
“It’s really cool, we won it last year so we were trying to go for the repeat and we did,” she said. “It means a lot because we did it for our coaches who put in so much time and effort to make us the team we are.”
And winning it all as a senior?
“It means so much, especially when you’re the only Grade 12,” Demassi said. “You don’t really expect to win it again, but we have so many good players on our team and it means a lot to me.”
Now, the Spirits turn their attention to an even bigger prize -- the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association provincial 4A championship. That tournament kicks off Friday in La Ronge, with Vanier entering as the event’s second seed, behind North Battleford John Paul II.
The two teams met at a tournament earlier this season, with the result leaving Bell looking forward to a rematch -- ideally in the provincial final.
“We played them in Melfort and had a really bad game, it wasn’t our best showing, but if we match-up with them we know we can compete,” Bell said.
Cornerstone is also off to provincials this weekend and will battle for 2A gold in Outlook. You can keep up with all those results on www.shsaaa.ca.
