Submitted by Darren Josephison
After six years of great seasons that included four league titles, 100 plus wins, but too many 2nd and 3rd place finishes at the Zones, the St. Augustine Queens have finally made it to ASAA Volleyball Provincials.
Their Zone playoff did not start off on a good note on Saturday, Nov. 23 as they lost to lower seeded Delburne 23-25 and 23-25 in a mistake fill match.
The Queens rebounded in their remaining round robin match with a 25-12, 25-17 win over OLMP from Camrose.
In the semi-final they would face first place Sedgewick from the other pool, who had quickly become everyone’s favourite to advance, based on their pool play. But the Queens played mistake-free volleyball on route to 25-21 and 25-22 wins. So it was back to the finals in their home gym like last year.
Their opponent would be CACHS from Lacombe. In front of a raucous crowd, the Queens were ahead the entire 1st set winning 25-22. But CACHS came out strong in the 2nd set leading 9-1, requiring a Queens timeout.
After the timeout, the St. As girls fought back to 9-9, only to fall behind again 10-16. Once again they dug in and tied the set 18-18. Then the score went back and forth until at 22-22, the Queens scored 3 straight points with the 25th being a booming pig ball kill by Jennifer Henderson.
With that the celebration was on.
The Queens will travel to Edmonton Wednesday Nov. 27 and play Thursday-Saturday. On the 50th anniversary of the ASAA, all boys and girls 1A, 2A, 3A, and 4A provincials are being held at the “Go Center” at the U of A’s south campus.