It was a good performance, but just a hair short of the playoffs for the St. Augustine Kings senior boys volleyball team.
The Kings were in Bashaw Sept. 16 for their second tournament of the pre-season and were looking better than the club has been in a couple seasons at the start of the year.
However, the Kings missed out on a semi-final berth by the slimmest of margins based on a points for and against tiebreaking formula. The boys lost their opener to New Norway (7-25, 24-26) then fell in three sets to Sedgewick (25-20, 24-26, 12-15) before beating Viking in three (22-25, 25-18, 15-9).
Head coach Justin Florean and the boys were a bit disappointed, but are keeping their eyes forward as the regular season begins this week.
“With two preseason tournaments under our belt, the team is performing more like a mid-season club,” he stated.
“And although we did not place where we wanted to this weekend each game, was a step toward forward. I’m looking forward to the season as the athletes have the skill and ability to compete. We just need to focus on precision and consistency.”
Florean added the biggest reason behind the team having made such great strides so early in the season has to do with its experience.
“This year, we have eight Grade 12 players to go with a Grade 11 and three Grade 10s, so our focus is on keeping it simple,” he stated.
Royal rumblings - The St. A Queens junior girls volleyball team was at Red Deer College on the weekend where they walked away with the title at a pre-season tournament. Meanwhile, the Queens’ senior girls hosted Rimbey Sept. 13 to kick off their 2A regular season campaign. The Kings and Queens senior squads are in Penhold tonight.