And as it turns out, that’s exactly what happened.
In the end, it was the Toilers who would emerge with their first title since 2014, taking a 3-1 (25-20, 21-25, 25-20, 25-18) victory in front of a raucous and noisy crowd at Sask Polytech.
As has been the case all season when the two teams met, the scores from the contest didn’t tell the tale of the game – Vanier led at one point in every set, sometimes nearing double digit leads, but other than the second game were unable to break through against the Toilers.
“I really feel like we played really well as a team, we had some downs but we came right back from those,” said Toilers Grade 12 Anna Maelde. “And Vanier played a really good game too, it was a lot of fun.”
The key to the contest for Peacock was dealing with the lethal hitting game presented by provincial team member Paige Beausoleil and fellow Grade 12 Bryn Giddings. The duo still racked up their share of kills, but the Toilers were able to limit the damage.
“I’ve coached Paige and I’ve coached Brynn, so it kind of helps that I’ve been with them for three or four years, so we know some of their tendencies, which is helpful for us,” said Toilers coach Lorne Polupski, referring to the duo’s time with the Thunder Creek Volleyball Club. “We set up a defence and we key on those two girls as much as we can to take their points away and that helps us in the long run.”
That kind of planning has been key to Peacock’s success all season.
“We’ve been strategizing against them and all the stronger teams in the province, and I think all the tough and hard practices and the work from our coaches has really paid off,” Maelde said.
The victory also marked a steady stream of progression for the Toilers – they lost their first match-up with the Spirits, but a win over Vanier in the Moose Jaw Invitational tournament sparked a run that would see Peacock go undefeated in league action the rest of the season.
“It’s amazing, I’m not sleeping tonight, my adrenaline is just going. The whole team played amazing and I’m so proud of those girls,” Polupski said. “This team has really come together in the last three weeks and have been doing everything we ask them to do… These girls love each other, the best thing is these girls are all friends, there’s no cliques or anything like that, they play for each other and it’s awesome.”
The two teams aren’t done with each other just yet: the schedule for the 4A girls provincial championship was released earlier this week and as fate would have it, the two teams are in the same preliminary pool and will face off in the final round robin game on Saturday morning.
“We know that’ll be another tough one and anything can happen, so we’ll have to be ready to go again,” Polupski said.
