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Victory for Vanier: Spirits celebrate girls volleyball provincial title

Championship marks second SHSAA gold for high school this year
One of the greatest traits a volleyball team can have is resiliency.

In a sport with so many highs and lows from minute-to-minute and even second-to-second, being able to regroup and find success after losing a tight point or even a close set can make all the difference.

And if you’re ever looking for an example of just how important resiliency can be, you can just ask a member of the 2019 Vanier Spirits high school girls volleyball team.

The Spirits went undefeated through the 4A provincial championship to win gold this past weekend. But their perfect 7-0 record came with a whole lot of caveats.

Like going to three sets in each and every one of their final five games. And in four of those five losing the first set before coming back to win. Even when they got off to a winning start, they would still find themselves in an epic battle by the time things were said and done.

In the end, though, there the Spirits were with the SHSAA championship plaque and gold medals around their necks.

“I’ve never been more proud in my whole life,” said Grade 12 veteran and de facto team leader Paige Beausoleil. “I have a family with these girls now, I’m so grateful for this season, they all worked so hard and did their job so well and I’m so proud to be a part of this team.”

What made the win even more impressive was what had happened only a few days before the provincial tournament began – the Spirits had lost the city final to the Peacock Toilers, who were also one of their provincial opponents.

“After cities, we just passed that on and said ‘okay, we’re done cities, now lets go for the gold here’,’ said Spirits head coach Brad Hennenfent. “We never really talked about winning, we just talked about competing hard and making the other team work every point. And we did.”

The key was cleaning up the miscues that had cost them so dearly in the city final.

“We used all the errors we made in city finals and took those into consideration for provincials and made sure that was what we were focussing on the entire time,” explained Beausoleil. “We struggled very much in our passing and serving the in the city final, so we made sure that was our most consistent thing throughout the whole weekend… And then obviously that rivalry against Peacock, we really wanted to show them what we had because we didn’t play our best in the city final.”

The two teams were both undefeated when they met to close out the round robin, and it would be another epic battle between the two teams before Vanier prevailed 14-25, 25-15, 15-12.

As it turns out, that would just be a sample of things to come.

Vanier girls volleyball outdoorsThe Spirits pose for a photo with their school sign congratulating them for their provincial title.

Their quarter-final saw Vanier take 19-25, 25-22, 15-4 win over Humboldt before running into an even scarier war against Meadow Lake in the semfinal, splitting the first two sets 25-21 and 20-25 before pulling out a 19-17 win in the third set.

It was a battle-hardened group that took the floor for the final against Nipawin, where they lost the first game 22-25, won the second 25-23 and roared out to a quick lead in the deciding set before taking a 15-11 victory.

After the final ball dropped, it was a subdued celebration for the Spirits, and for good reason.

“We were so tired, so drained,” Beausoleil said. “When you jump the whole weekend, your legs start to get tired. But it shows that all the hard work we put in at practice really paid off because we were able to push through that pain and still get up the floor and play our best game.”

The Spirits were honoured in a school assembly before classes on Monday morning, and Hennenfent said in addressing the students that this Spirts team was the best he’d ever coached.

“It was amazing how they all just dug in, and we were getting to balls that we normally don’t get,” he said. “I don’t know if it was a full moon going on that same time, but the girls started believing in themselves and that was the biggest thing.

“And then with a leader like Paige, there were a couple matches where she put the team on her back and just went. I had coaches and referees and everyone coming up to me afterwards and asking ‘what’s she doing next year’ because she was just special out there.”

Hennenfent also pointed to a host of player development that came essentially out of nowhere – with players like Grade 10 Piper Olson and rookie Grade 11 Jadyn Moser developing into front-line players alongside seniors Bryn Giddings, Madison Miller and Madison Thul.

The win marked the second provincial title for Vanier this year and fourth in the past 18 months – the Spirts girls soccer team won the 4A girls championship at the end of October, while last school year saw the Vikings win the 4A boys title and Allison Grajczyk-Jelinski the girls cross country championship.

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