Competition was fierce at St. Augustine Queens’ eighth annual Turkey Burner volleyball tournament last weekend.
The senior and JV girls volleyball teams hosted 10 other teams from around central Alberta who were all looking for bragging rights at the popular tournament. The tournament started Friday, Oct. 16 with a large crowd of students cheering on the senior team who played against Christ the King School from Leduc.
Despite the cheers from fans, the Queens lost the match against Leduc, said coach Darren Josephison. “It was really exciting in front of a large crowd.”
Age and experience may have contributed to the loss, says Josephison, who has a large number of Grade 10 players on his senior team. He has some players on the senior team who also play with the JV team. Josephison has put some extra responsibility on the Grade 10 players and has one who is the main setter for the senior team.
While they are relatively young, players are showing signs of greatness. Josephison said in all the tournaments and most games they compete in, the team is able to get high points but cannot complete the momentum created made in the game.
“Our biggest (challenge) is always consistency and having success in the last four or five points,” explained Josephison.
However, in the Turkey Burner tournament, the senior Queens did appear to find some momentum over the weekend. In their second match against Tofield the Queens won one and lost one set — the tournament is setup with two games per match with points going to the team who win sets.
After Tofield, the Queens won both sets against Sylvan Lake and lost both to Devon. They ended up competing against Delburne, the eventual winners of the tournament, and won one and lost one, said Josephison. This put the senior Queens in the consolation game against Tofield where the team won both sets.
“We just got kind of better and better as the tournament went along,” said Josephison.
As for the JV team, Josephison said they finished second in their pool and ended up competing in the A side of the tournament eventually tying for fifth place overall. Josephison said they did have three alumni players joining them over the weekend, which may have contributed to their strong performance. He praised the team for having a strong weekend, and season.
“The ones that are starting on that team are having to pick up the load on my (senior) team,” said Josephison.