Game performance by the St. Augustine Kings senior boys’ volleyball team showed the team has seen some improvement to their skills.
The Kings played the Central Alberta Christian High School Knights Monday, Oct. 19 losing both sets. Despite the loss, the Kings showed solid improvement in their play as seen in the first set, losing 25-21. They started relatively strong against the Knights with an even game for the first three or four points.
However, that confidence faltered and the young Ponoka team trailed by a large margin against Lacombe. A series of strong serves from the Kings, however, helped rebound the team’s confidence and reduced their deficit to a few points. Those serves and completing plays helped the Kings immensely in the first period.
“It’s all basically down to one step at a time,” said coach Justin Florean of the players’ improvements.
The team practices two times a week and Florean says with each game the team’s unity grows.
A win in the first game was in sights for the Kings after several strong serves landed just within the boundaries of the court but a stronger Knights’ defense proved too much for the Ponoka team.
Despite that loss, Florean says the Kings are realizing they can play well against other teams. It’s their confidence that needs to grow.
“Everything’s tighter. They’re off the net and they make fewer and fewer mistakes,” he explained.
The second set proved a tougher challenge for the Kings who lost 14-25. While they made some positive strategic plays, Ponoka’s deficit continued to grow and the point difference was too much for the team to catch up. Early in the game CACHS was ahead 9-3, then 10-5 and they increased it to 12-6.
The point difference was almost double point gap throughout the game.
At one point Florean called a timeout in an attempt to regain some momentum but that didn’t seem to help. The only thing that appeared to keep the Kings on the points board were unforced errors on the part of the Knights.
The last league game for the Kings is Nov. 16 and then teams compete at zones.