OLDS — With a really strong league record and some great results in tournaments, the École Olds High School senior girls volleyball team is pretty confident.
As of Oct. 17, the Spartans were undefeated in league play. In tournament action, they finished second during a tournament in Lacombe and fourth out of 12 teams in their home tournament, held Oct. 13-14.
The team ended up with a 4-1 on during a tournament in Stettler.
"We lost the game we needed to win and we ended up in the consolation bracket," head coach Blake Machan said in an email.
Machan says the team has a good mix of four Grade 12s, some Grade 11s and two Grade 10s.
The Grade 12s and Grade 11s provide that very important experience.
The team has also gained experience from club volleyball which has been growing in Olds and area the last few years.
Apart from Avery Johnson, who Machan says is nearly six feet tall, the team has what he describes as “average height.”
But they make up for that with great talent.
“We have lots of good athletes and girls that are used to being on the court and able to do a lot of lot of quality things, both offensively and defensively, so yeah, we’ve got a really good squad,” he said during an interview with the Albertan.
“We're excited about how the rest of the season plays out.
“I think as we've been in the season for a bit, we’re recognizing we have a really good serving team and a team that can pass well and lots of different options on the on the offensive side for attack and attacking the other side of the court. So yeah, we’ve got a nice mix.”
Although the Spartans didn’t win their home tournament, that experience proved they can play with anybody.
“We ended up first in our pool after round robin and then unfortunately we ended up losing both of our playoff games -- both games to good teams,” he said.
They lost to Brooks which went on to win the tournament and lost a hard-fought battle to Canmore.
“Overall, we were happy with how the how the weekend went and learned lots as we move into the back end of the season,” Machan said.
As of last week, the team had luckily not suffered any injuries that have forced girls out of action.
Machan says the plan is to focus on the last few tournaments of the regular season, including a big one Nov. 3-4 in Strathmore.
Then come zones.
“We're trying to work on just expanding our offence a little bit; putting in a little bit more creativity with some of our attacking,” Machan said.
“I mean overall, we're always continuing to work on the fundamentals that are just around serve, pass.
“As long as we can do those things (well) with a little bit of creativity on offence, we should show well the rest of the season.”
