The Strathcona-Tweedsmuir Spartans are going to the big volleyball dance through the front door and they will be joined by a smart-looking team decked out in black-and-gold.
The Spartans will go into the 2A Senior boys provincial championships this week at STS as South Central zone champions. The Spartans won the zone title by edging the Oilfields Drillers 2-1 (23-25, 25-23, 15-11) in the final Saturday in Black Diamond.
“This shows we earned our way to provincials – that we’re not just there because we are the host,” said Spartans captain/middle Harrison Hart. “We fought for it and earned it, just like the other teams.”
The Drillers also received an invite to provincials because STS is the host. A relieved Hart said the Drillers belong there after giving the Spartans a Herculean scare.
“They were amazing,” Hart said. “They are so much different than when we played them at the start of the season. This is exactly what we needed going into provincials – a tough game.”
It was almost an upset of NDP sweeps Alberta proportions.
Oilfields won the first set 25-23 and had the Spartans on the ropes at 23-22 in the second set. However after a Hart spike to tie the game at 23-23, STS won the last two points to force a third and deciding set to 15 to for the zone banner.
“We’re a team that rallies when the going gets tough,” Hart said.
The Spartans built up an 8-4 lead in the third set, but Oilfields battled back to tie the match at 8-8 on strong serving from Andrew Hardie and the aggressive hitting of Riley Grusing and Connor Caron. STS was able to regain control and went on a five-point run late in the game for the 15-9 victory to earn its second-consecutive South Central zone banner.
“We played the best we did all year,” Grusing said. “We won every game except for STS and we did it as a team.
“We were more active in the back row and we were differently talking to one another.”
It wasn’t idle talk, the Drillers shocked the Spartans in the first set.
“I was actually pretty stunned that we pulled that off,” Caron said with a smile. “I was hoping we could finish off and take home the banner, but we couldn’t get the side-outs and finish off like we had to.”
Now the Drillers have their collective bit set for a big strike at STS next weekend at provincials.
“We’re going — if we didn’t get this far we wouldn’t be going to provincials,” Grusing said. “After this, we will have a lot more momentum because we know how well we played.”
Drillers coach Leigh Bretzlaff said he is proud of how his team has come along after being speared by the Spartans 3-0 at the start of the season.
“We were trying some things out and we got beat up pretty good,” Bretzlaff said. “But since that time the boys have really gelled and today, we were awesome.
“We wanted to show STS we could play with the best and show we deserve to be at provincials.”
The finale nearly had the Spartans wondering if anyone got the licence plate of the drilling truck that nearly ran them over.
“I thought they had us halfway through set two,” Spartans coach Dale Roth said. “They were outplaying us, out-earning us. Our boys didn’t give up. They showed a lot of perseverance and didn’t give up.
“After winning set two, the boys started believing we could do it.”
Now, the Spartans are setting their sights on provincials.
“We knew we were going to provincials as host and we have been talking about it all year,” Roth said. “Being the host can be an advantage and a disadvantage. My job as coach is to make sure there aren’t any distractions so the boys can focus on volleyball.
“I think the boys are ready.”
Hart is pumped.
“It’s exciting – it means we are going to be able to walk into the gym and know we have home court advantage and the crowd is going to be on our side,” Hart said. “That’s all we can ask for.”
The Spartans finished in the middle of the pack at provincials last year, and Hart said they learned from the experience in Assumption.
“Last year we were just glad to be there,” he said. “This year, we want to make a run for the banner.”
The 2A provincials start this Thursday at STS. For a full schedule go to provincials.asaa.ca. To follow results throughout the tournament go to twitter.com/STSAthleticdep
