Three years of groundwork laid the path for a new king to be crowned in senior boys volleyball.
The veteran laden Holy Trinity Academy Knights finally halted the dynasty from across town by dispatching the six-time defending league champion Foothills Falcons in straight sets to take the Foothills Athletic Council title on Nov. 9.
“I’m ecstatic. It’s my first banner,” said Grade 12 Knight Colton Kroon. “Since Grade 10 we’ve been a really tight-knit group of guys. We have six Grade 12s on this team who’ve known each other since junior… I think it’s a lot of determination and drive that our team has.”
Both teams came out with championship game intensity in-front of massive crowds on hand at the Crescent Point Field House.
The teams traded mini-runs and heavy hits before HTA pulled away late in the opening set, showcasing a theme in the best-of-five final (25-19, 25-21, 25-21).
“We tend to be a team that can comeback from being down by a lot of points,” Kroon said. “In the first set when we were going down it was because we had bad passing and weren’t having good hits. As soon as our passing improves our hits and overall performance improves.”
The neck-and-neck second set was up for grabs for the duration. Hard-hitting Knight Jon Gerber clinched the 25-21 victory with a block to close it out.
It was a complete team effort for head coach Fritz Peters’ squad.
“There weren’t too many service errors,” she said. “Whenever we could pass, (setter Ethan Miller) had the option of three hitters so we could split the blocks.
“They performed all of their skills very well.”
Foothills was also up for the challenge.
Each and every set went down to the wire with consistency at the end of games being one of the only things separating the squads.
“It wasn’t a blowout match where the guys weren’t there to compete,” said Falcons head coach Megan Skory.
“I liked that there were moments where we were really swinging away and going after the ball. Then we would get those couple points and relax a little too much.
“We have to make sure we’re maintaining that intensity.”
The seesaw final set saw the Knights pull away late only to have the Falcons scratch and claw back into contention. HTA looked to have won the contest on a thunderous smash from Ryan Peters sending the Knights fans into a frenzy only to be penalized for touching the net seconds later.
Coach Peters immediately called a timeout after the controversial ruling and the team took the next point to clinch the victory (25-21) on a blocked shot at the net by Kroon.
“She just said shake it off – it’s just volleyball and one point,” Kroon said. “Sometimes teams get in the dumps after that and lose a big lead, but we tend to bounce back right away and know how to deal with it.”
It was close to the definition of a banner evening for Knights volleyball.
HTA’s senior girls also got the better of the Falcons in the final to earn their first title in three seasons while the JV girls also earned a silver medal in league play.
The Strathcona-Tweedsmuir Spartans took both the JV girls and boys titles.
“There is three teams represented here. They need to look a little more at the volleyball program and how well it is doing,” Peters said. “On my team I think I have three club ball players and to be able to do that against the Comp and other city teams we’ve beaten, they’ve got a lot of heart and play so well together.
“The teamwork is amazing with this team.”
The Falcons and Knights aren’t quite done swinging away for cross-town bragging rights.
With HTA new to the 4A level this year, the Knights will battle the Falcons in a two-team zone championship to determine a berth into provincials.
The best-of-three South Central Zone championship opens on Nov. 16 at HTA at 6 p.m. Game two is set for a 6 p.m. start on Nov. 17 at Foothills.
If the series goes the distance, Game 3 is a 1 p.m. start on Nov. 20 at the Knights gym.
