When the Olds High School Spartans senior girls' team hosts the 3A Senior Girls Volleyball South Central Zone Championships this weekend, head coach Wanda Vandervelden says it'll be a chess match as much as anything else.
About eight teams from as far east as Brooks and as far west as Canmore are expected to compete in the tournament, which takes place Nov. 16-17 in the Ralph Klein Centre.
"The deciding factor will be where we are coming out of our pool," she says. "It's going to be a bit of a chess match amongst teams to try to avoid the number 1 team (Cochrane), which is probably the number 1 team in the province.
"So we have to be second in our pool; or third, coming out of the quarters, and we'll end up against them in the semis.
"Divine intervention will have to happen for us to be able to beat them, I think," she adds.
Vandervelden says the Cochrane team has lots of height, but they also have the advantage of having played in top-notch competition during the season.
"They have the advantage of those girls playing on a Dino club team all year for years, going through the system and so yeah; they kind of get the best of the best," she says.
However, Vandervelden says the Spartans have some strengths of their own.
"We've got a balanced attack, but our defence -- our passing and our defence is our strength.
"We can dig anything that they throw at us. We just keep throwing it back at 'em. We'll hit equally from all three spots, plus the back row," Vandervelden says.
"We don't have to rely on one person. We don't have a go-to person that (other) teams can shut down. We can fire at them from all angles."
There are two opportunities for teams competing in this tournament to go on to Provincials. They can win the tournament outright or proceed via a wild card berth.
The Spartans have proven they can win.
"We won the league championship, we were second in the first tournament in Three Hills, we were third at the Didsbury tournament that focused on having the top 2A teams in the province," Vandervelden says.
She notes they also placed third in a tournament in Lacombe, playing against 3A and 4A teams.
