2002 Fall Sports/Boys Volleyball  

Greenhill defeated in Canada
By Jeff Hansen
St. Albert Gazette
Staff Writer
(10/23/02)

Morinville — Losing game one in the varsity men’s final to the Claremont Secondary Spartans was a wakeup call for the Bev Facey Falcons.

“We came out pretty flat. We pretty much got killed,” said Falcons’ co-captain Ryan Hay. “I think they thought we would roll over and die after that but we pulled out two great sets and we came back for the victory.”

Bev Facey completed its impressive comeback at the Lions Western Canadian

Challenge (WCC) volleyball tournament with a 15-11 decision in game three in Saturday’s gold-medal match. “This set capped it all off for us.”

With the Falcons up 13-11, the six-foot-five Hay tattooed the floor with a powerful smash down the line, signalling the beginning of the end for the Victoria, B.C. visitors. The 17-year-old Falcon accounted for the team’s opening three points in game three. The Sherwood Park squad surrendered a 4-1 lead. Trailing by two, the Falcons took charge during a six-point run to lead 11-7.

In game one the Spartans picked apart Bev Facey’s defence to win 25-12.

The Falcons fell into a deep hole after scoring the first point. At one stage it was 16-7 Victoria, with the margin increasing to 20-9.

Game two was over quickly, as Bev Facey took command with an early 10-2 lead. Hay’s jump serves posed problems for the Spartans defence during a six-point run. The Spartans chipped away at the lead, and trailed at times by scores of 16-15, 17-16 and 20-19. A deafening block by Hay made it

22-19 Falcons. His spike was too hot to handle for the game-winning point.

“This was definitely the toughest match we had.”

The tournament MVP was a tower of power playing right side. “It feels pretty good to win it.”

In the men’s 48-team division, the Falcons swept all five round-robin matches. In the playoffs they were pushed to the limit to defeat the Ponoka Composite Broncos 26-24, 23-25, 15-9 and Winnipeg’s Miles Macdonell Collegiate Buckeyes 23-25, 25-22, 15-12. In the semifinals they knocked off the Barrhead Gryphons 25-19, 25-23.

“Our all-around play was fairly good in this tournament.”

Prior to competing in Canada’s largest high school volleyball tournament, Bev Facey ranked undefeated in four matches in the Metro Edmonton league’s Premier Conference. The Falcons also won the Bev Facey Invitational and placed third at the University of Alberta tournament

“We took a big step this weekend heading into the second half of our league and hopefully [4A] provincials after that, so this was a big win for us.”

The buzz inside the Morinville Community High School gymnasium during

Saturday’s playoffs was the Spartans’ 25-23, 25-20 sweeping victory over the Greenhill Hornets, the 2001 WCC champs and runners-up the previous year.

“They were really good. If a couple of points had gone our way then we could’ve won but I’m happy with our performance,” said Hornets co-captain Brennan Meier.

An ankle injury to Grade 12 outside hitter Alex Gutor stung the Hornets’ dream of repeating.

“We played really well in the tournament, and then in our first round of the playoffs [25-16, 25-19 win over the Fairview Cobras] Alex got hurt.

That played a big factor in the semifinal since he is our big hitter. We were kind of at a deficit,” Meier said. “When he got hurt my heart sank.”  Gutor, an MVP candidate who put on a hitting clinic at last year’s WCC, was sidelined for the rest of the playoffs, except for a late appearance in game two against Victoria and a stint in the bronze-medal final. “We just didn’t have any luck in the semifinals. That team was pretty good that we played but we could have won. We did have some mental mistakes and also some serve mistakes but I guess it’s just the way it’s supposed to be,” said the six-foot-four spiker.

The Hornets took home bronze with an easy 25-18, 25-13 sweep of Barrhead. This game was hard to play. We were really depressed because we came into this tournament knowing that we were the best and we were the defending in champions,” Meier said.

The Hornets did set a school record at the WCC for most consecutive matches won. They broke the old mark of 84 with a 25-11, 25-9 victory over the host Morinville Prairie Wolves in Thursday’s curtain-raiser in the round robin draw. “That was incredible, especially during the opening ceremonies with all the festivities and the huge crowd. It was a lot of fun. There was a lot of adrenaline pumping,” said Meier, a Grade 12 setter.

The semifinal loss was the first defeat by the North Dallas private school team since the 2000 WCC final, a two-game setback administered by the

Brooks Buffalos. “That record is probably going to be very hard to beat because this is a pretty good team we have this year,” said Gutor, 18.