If one just looked at the regular season standings heading into the high school girls volleyball semifinal between the Peacock Toilers and Vanier Spirits on Thursday night, it would have easy to assume who was going to win.
You had the Toilers, defending provincial champions and holders of a 7-0 record taking on a Vanier team that had finished in fourth place with a 3-5 regular season mark -- generally, a sign that it’s going to be a quick night.
But this is Moose Jaw high school volleyball we’re talking about, where all sorts of interesting things happen on a regular basis in the playoffs.
And sure enough, the Spirits rose to the occasion.
Peacock ended up having to battle tooth-and-nail from the opening serve before taking a 3-2 (25-23, 17-25, 25-22, 19-25, 15-13) victory to advance to the city championship this coming Tuesday at Sask Polytech.
“This is just like the old days,” said Toilers coach Lorne Polupski after the dramatic finish. “We’ve had battles like this with Central and Vanier has improved so much this year, there’s no way they should have been fourth, they probably should have been one or two… It worked out as it worked out, but they played amazing. Either team could have won that.”
The fifth and deciding set offered an example of just how close things were.
Vanier roared out to a 5-1 lead in the first-to-15 race, but Peacock chipped away, eventually tying things 8-8. Neither team led by more than two points the rest of the way until the Toilers finally strung back-to-back scores in the final points of the match.
“I didn’t expect anything less, it was awesome, we played awesome and they played awesome and we just got the better end of the deal,” Polupski said of how the match shook out. “I know that in the background they had some experienced coaches helping them out, too, and they made some good moves. We knew what they could do, and we prepare for the best teams in the province all the time. So we just had to play our game and we’re not worried about anyone else.”
The match also offered a symbol of the evolution of volleyball in Moose Jaw in recent years -- a good number of players on both teams had played for the Thunder Creek Volleyball Club and in Regina, leading to the kind of skill development that leads to close, hard-fought matches.
“You look at the two teams, we all have four or five players who are playing club,” Polupski said. “That makes a big difference and was a reason the volleyball was awesome tonight and it was a great match.”
The Toilers will now face the Central Cyclones for the city championship on Tuesday, after the Cyclones pulled off a mild upset with a 3-1 victory over the Briercrest Christian Academy Cougars in Caronport. BCA had finished the regular season in second place at 5-2, Central in third at 4-4.
Who Peacock would be playing in the final wasn’t known at the end of their match with Vanier, but Polupski was certain of one thing -- they’ll be in for another hard-fought battle in front of a loud and raucous crowd when things tip off at 6:20 p.m. at Sask Polytech.
“I don’t know who we’re going to play, but any of these four teams are so close that it could have been any of us,” Polupski said.
“I’m proud of our troops, they were down a few times and could have folded, but our Grade 12s worked their butts off, came back and showed great leadership. Each of the girls who were out there, we’re a team and we work together. “
