Lessons were going to be learned this season and it began in the opening match.
Senior girls volleyball head coach Ron Labrie for Ponoka Secondary Campus (PSC) Broncs, admitted as much before the season started on Sept. 13 as they hosted Innisfail. However, he didn’t quite anticipate that those lessons would include work needed from his group of senior players as well.
The Broncs fell 25-22, 25-19 and 25-14 to Innisfail and showed smatterings of what they can accomplish, especially in first two sets.
“I thought our first set was strong. We served very tough, which limited the opportunities for their strong offense to get quality sets (for their attacks),” Labrie explained.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t so much what Innisfail did right, but what the Broncs didn’t do that caused their downfall.
“As the match went on, we began to beat ourselves with a lot of unforced errors and unwise decisions,” he said.
However, Labrie knows the talent and skills are there, it’s simply a matter of getting those players that game experience and work in practice.
“As this was our first match of the season, I have confidence that we will improve our weaknesses and play more consistent volleyball from start to finish,” he added.
JV girls take it
Meanwhile, the Broncs junior varsity girl’s squad walked away Sept. 13 with a straight sets victory (25-9, 25-17, 25-13) over Innisfail and followed that up last Saturday with a decent performance at a one-day tournament at St. Augustine Catholic School.
Head coach Tammy Emes stated it felt great to get their first win, but positional errors along with some basic fundamentals will be a continued focus for her.
“It was great to have our first win, but there is always room for improvement. We will be working more serving and passing in the next few practices,” she said.
The tournament was a great warm-up for the team, who finished the day with a pair of victories, one loss and two split matches against teams from Penhold, Caroline, Devon and Lacombe’s Central Alberta Christian High School.
“The girls are really starting to play well as a team and showed a lot of improvement of their skills (that day),” Emes explained.
Smash hits
Both Broncs clubs will be on the road this weekend. The senior girls will be playing some very tough competition from the bigger cities at a tournament this Friday and Saturday in Beaumont, while the junior varsity squad will be in Red Deer for a tournament at Hunting Hills. Both teams will be back on home court at PSC Sept. 27 against Sylvan Lake with the junior varsity first up at 6 p.m. followed by the senior girls.