The Strathcona-Tweedsmuir Spartans know they have a tall order in front of them if they wish to win their first Foothills Athletic Council senior boys volleyball championship in 15 years.
That tall order is trying to stop Foothills Falcon six-foot-seven power Liam Hall in the final this Thursday at the Crescent Point Field House near Aldersyde.
“He will hit right side, he’ll hit left side, the back row – any position he is coming from,” said STS Spartans coach Dale Roth. “We have to match our game to theirs. We have to take their big hits and deliver our own big hits… not let our attitude change, just stay the course.”
The no. 3 seeded Spartans advanced to the finals by stunning the no. 2 Holy Trinity Academy Knights 3-0 in the semifinal at HTA on Oct. 28.
“It was good volleyball and HTA had a lot of energy,” Roth said after the victory. “I told the boys right from the start it was the team that was going to work the hardest that was going to win tonight.”
One of those hard workers was Grade 10 Spartan setter Nico Belanger. He said they had learned from their 3-1 loss to HTA earlier in the year.
“The biggest thing tonight was our mental energy to the game,” Belanger said. “We had it for the first two games and pushed it to the end.”
It won’t get any easier as the first-place Falcons await in the final.
The Falcons will be the hands-down favourites as they went undefeated in the regular season which included a 3-1 victory at STS over a flat Spartan squad.
Foothills advanced to the finals by ousting Oilfields in the semifinal 3-1 Oct. 28 at the Comp.
However, Falcons coach Corey Cowper is expecting the Spartans to be a hard-working underdog for the final.
“They are feisty – scrappy defensively,” Cowper said. “They are going to be very motivated to play us. They always are.
“The key for us is to get up on them early and that will really put a damper on that motivation.”
He said Spartans power and captain Harrison Hart is a well-rounded player who can attack from anywhere on the floor.
As for the Falcons, the key to winning is doing the little things right – Hall, Mason Sheen and Co. can’t spike the ball if it’s not there.
“If we keep our serves in and our passes up, we are going to be fine,” Cowper said.
As for STS, the only people thinking it can pull off the upset at the field house may be the players and coaches dressed in Spartan blue.
And that is who matters.
“I definitely think it is a big challenge for us,” Belanger said. “They are not unbeatable. Sure they have big hitters and are a big school, but I think we have a good team. Despite how good the Comp is, we can definitely be competitive against them.”
The boys final is scheduled tentatively for 7 p.m. after the girls final. The JV boys final will also go at 7 p.m. at the field house. The JV semifinal matches were Nov. 3, after the Wheel’s deadline. For more information go to fac.teampages.com
