The Smithers Secondary senior girls’ volleyball team ended their season with a bang, finishing with the best results they’ve had since 2009.
The Gryphons finished 14th of 16 teams in the AA provincials in Mill Bay on Vancouver Island at the end of November.
“The AA tier is the strongest, the winning team is the best in the province. Every other match was pretty close, tight games all the way down. It was a very tight tournament,” said head coach Neal Currie. “Overall we were happy . . . I think they were very happy with the outcome.”
Going into the tournament, the Gryphons were ranked last, but stepped up their game in the pool play against some high calibre teams from the south.
Although they lost all pool games, they were close matches, losing to D.P. Todd 16-25 and 21-25, Surrey Christian 19-25 and 20-25, and the host team, Brentwood College 15-25 and 21-25.
“The pool had very tough competition,” said Currie. “We lost all the games in the pool, but we played really well against D.P. Todd and Surrey Christian.”
Against stronger teams such as Prince George and Surrey Christian, the team’s offensive and defensive systems were running like a well-oiled machine.
“We played really well against the strong teams,” said Currie. “Really good offence. Good blocking, and then just being athletic, scrambling to make the saves and plays.”
The Gryphons really showed their offensive talent in the second game against Surrey Christian, who was armed with one of the strongest hitters in the tournament.
“Everything just needed to be a little bit better — the blocks needed to be faster, the defence needed to get into position faster and we did everything we could to get them out of that system because they had really big hitters,” said Currie.
“We just tried to push them out of that system and cause problems so they couldn’t run their offence and they did a good job of that.”
The team lost that tight match 21-25, and Surrey Christian went on to win bronze later in the tournament.
Other than D.P. Todd, Smithers Secondary was the only team from the northwest to compete at provincials.
Senior Morgan Monkman said the team held their own against teams from down south.
“It’s hard for us coming from the North to compete against teams down south. The calibre down there is much higher,” she said.
“I think it went great, we were all proud. We competed really hard with some of the best teams in the province.”
For Monkman and 11 other senior players who have been playing together since Grade 8, the end of the season is bittersweet.
“[It is my] last high school season, but volleyball is the ultimate team sport and to be able to share my experience with all my teammates was awesome,” said Monkman, noting that she’ll miss the camaraderie between her fellow players the most.
“I think that everyone grew over the course of the season. From our first match of the year to the last match, there’s so much personal and team growth.”
Only four players will be returning next season, added Currie.