St. Mary’s travels to Our Lady of Mount Pleasant

By Cal Braid
Taber Times
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The St. Mary’s Auroras are back in action on the volleyball court. Team spokesperson Carolyn Siemens said the school is part of the newly formed Deep South Volleyball league, and she’s enthusiastic about coaching the players to their highest potential.

 “We have entered a junior varsity team and a senior varsity team; we only add our three grade twelves to make the SV team so most athletes are playing on both teams. This is great for our grade tens and elevens as they will see a lot of court time,” she explained, noting that for most of the athletes on the JV team, their opening game against Immanuel Christian was their first high school volleyball experience.

 On Sept. 18, the Auroras played W.R. Myers for a league game. “Our JV squad took a loss to Myers, but we are pleased with the improvement they make all the time,” Siemens said.  “Our SV team came out flat their first game and struggled throughout. We were able to pick it up in the next two sets and really battled with Myers but came out on the losing end for the match.”

 The following week, the team hosted Prairie Winds Secondary school from Coaldale. The JV squad went 1-2 in its match, but the SV team played a five set match and won it. “We really worked hard on our defense against them as they have height and they attack well,” Siemens said.

 This past weekend, the squad travelled to Camrose for the Our Lady of Mount Pleasant tournament, and Siemens gave the recap. “This is a pretty big tournament where we get to play teams from central Alberta. We were in a pool of seven teams and it was really tough competition. On Friday we had three games, and although we only won one set we played really well. The girls showed some great resilience playing tough teams and worked hard throughout all their games. Our first game was Holy Rosary from Lloydminster, next we took on Camrose Composite, and our last match for the day was against Three Hills and we were able to take the first set off them.”

 On Saturday, St. Mary’s continued in pool play, with its first match against Bawlf. “The girls had a great game with Bawlf,” Siemens said.  “We lost the first set 26-27 and it was so fun to watch the girls’ intensity and play throughout the game. Our next game was against the host team and we won both sets. We saw some really great serving from our team and OLMP struggled to pass the ball.”

 The final game was against Prairie Winds, and it was the third meeting in two weeks between the teams. They split the match and St. Mary’s finished fifth in its pool but didn’t advance to the playoff round.

 The Auroras next game is on Wed. Oct. 2 at Taber Christian High School. The JV team starts at 6 and the SV at 7:30 p.m.