The 16 & Under Women's Asics Cups #2 volleyball tournament was held on March 26-27 at the Gallagher Centre and the Gloria Hayden Centre.
Twenty-five teams from across the province competed in the 16U division.
The host McSweeney's Selects 15U team had a great tournament finishing tied for 13th overall while playing up a division against older and more experienced players. They had a tough draw following the re-pool and they ended up having the eventual gold and silver medal teams to play against, says Brent Brown, head coach.
The highlight of the weekend was giving the gold medal winning team from Moose Jaw (the Element) all they could handle. "Their coach mentioned that we were one of the tougher teams they had played so far in the tournament to that point."
Because of the rules of the tournament and McSweeney's playing up a division, the team was able to get some help from the older group as Skyler German was able to dress for the games. German usually plays on the 18U team.
"She was quite a presence on the floor and a lot of eyebrows were raised with some huge hits and tons of blocks."
Other notable mentions went to Brooke Bielka who played well as a setter and Rachel Machnee really had a great weekend in the middle. There will be a couple weeks of practice now getting ready for the provincials in Saskatoon at the end of April. Brown said the volleyball over the weekend was great for the city, for the sport and the economic spinoffs.
"It was a great opportunity for the City of Yorkton to be able to hold such big events as it is to play at home and the economic spinoffs for the community are huge."
The two Yorkton teams were playing amongst 23 other teams from all over Saskatchewan, including Saskatoon, Estevan and Regina. The Selects started the tournament in the E pool and the Yorkton Blitz started in the C pool.
The Selects were in tough with Lakeland College in their first game, dropping both sets 6-25 and 8-25. In their second game against St. Walburg, they took the opening set 28-26, but lost the next two. The third set was a 13-15 setback. In their last game Saturday afternoon against Kipling, they took both sets, 25-23 and 25-22.
The re-pool play started at 6 p.m., Saturday.
