The Saskatchewan Volleyball Association Asics Cup was played in Yorkton this past weekend.
The tournament involved girls' teams from all over the province in U17 and U18.Among the competing teams was the U18 Blitz coached by Chris Lohnes.
His team went to the final match of Tier III in which they lost to the Heat, 2-0.
Lohnes said the Asics Cup was important because it is a basis of seeding teams for the remainder of the volleyball season.
Despite the loss in the Tier III finals, Lohnes said he didn't have much in the way of expectations going into it.
"We've been re-arranging the team around all weekend," Lohnes testified following the loss.
He wasn't happy the way things went but wasn't at a loss for words in explaining why he wasn't happy.
"We have new players. All of them work hard, but they didn't play up to their skill level. We have a new setter (too)," he added.
That made things interesting because shifting players around on the volleyball court meant that someone would likely be playing a spot they aren't very familiar with.
"We had to take one of our main hitters and make her a setter," Lohnes explained.He added that given the skills of his team, he said he was hoping to finish higher end of Tier II, that considering that nobody on the U18 Blitz had seen much of the other clubs that participated in the Asics Cup II.
Lohnes' team is made up of players from all over.
That includes Foam Lake, Sacred Heart (High School in Yorkton), three from the Yorkton Regional and a new girl who comes from Ituna.
"We're re-arranging some practice skills, too," added Lohnes.
He said the calibre of players over the weekend was what he thought it would be, adding that his team had a rough day on the Saturday and that didn't help in terms of the team's final placing.
The Blitz also played shorthanded, with eight girls; most of the other teams had at least 10, says Lohnes.
Next up for some of the Blitz players will be a prospects camp held next month in February. Lohnes hinted that some of his players will be heading southwest to Assiniboia in hopes of attracting scholarship attention.
