Yukon Volleyball teams tune-up for AWG at Super Sunday

The Arctic Winter Games (AWG) girls' and boys' volleyball teams each have additional playing experience, thanks to this past weekend's Super Sunday event, which was hosted at FH Collins Secondary School.

The Arctic Winter Games (AWG) girls’ and boys’ volleyball teams each have additional playing experience, thanks to this past weekend’s Super Sunday event, which was hosted at FH Collins Secondary School.

At the event, both teams competed in a best-of-five sets match against a collection of local athletes in the sport, beginning with the girls’ squad, who took on the Yukon Womens’ All-Stars at 2 p.m.

“You just can’t beat game conditions, it’s just so different,“ said Al Foster, the coach of the girls team. “Even in practice, I try to incorporate game situations as much as possible, so to have a game situation that’s ideal. That is why today was such a treat.

To play against a full strong team like that, it was great.“

The purpose of Super Sunday was to give both AWG teams a final tune-up where they would be playing in front of a crowd in an actual game scenario.  Another goal was to provide the teams with an opportunity to play against competition that is going to be similar to what they will face in Yellowknife at the Games in March.

The girls’ team did exceptionably well at Super Sunday, rebounding after an opening set defeat to win three straight games in the victory.

The team’s final set was particularly impressive where they fell behind and were just two points away from losing. At one point, the score was 23-17, but the girls managed to battle back and scored eight straight points to win the match.

The girl’s team was selected in November and since then they have averaged two practices a week. The age range on the team is 15 to 19 years old.

Before Super Sunday, the group was working on serving and the serve receive part of their game. The team was also focusing on improving their transition on the court.

Foster said the team improved in all three areas just by playing in Sunday’s match. He also added that the team’s progression has come a long way since November.

“All these girls have come from their own high school program and have very much their own set ways about doing things, so to get everyone to buy into one singular system it is a real challenge,“ he said. “Especially in Whitehorse because all three play different styles, so it is hard to get everyone on the same page, but once they got on the same page the results speak for themselves.“

He was impressed with how the girls came back after losing the first set.

“Volleyball is 70 per cent mental, 30 per cent physical,“ he said. “The mental game is so huge, so when you can rebound and come back with a win it is so mature to see that.“

Foster said he would like to win a medal at the Games, but his main goal is just for the girls to have an enjoyable experience.

“As long as the experience is positive and they are competitive and that they feel good about what they have done, that is number one with me,“ he said.

Kendra Thomson has been playing volleyball for five years now and this will be the second time that she will represent the Yukon at the AWG in the sport. She said the volleyball team this time around is even better than the one that finished fourth at the previous Games.

“I think we have a lot of girls with a lot skill this year,“ she said. “It is going to be a really good tournament.“

She said she was pleased with how the series against the all-stars went.

“It went well,“ Thomson said. “We shouldn’t have lost some of the matches, but I think we did pretty good. This is our first kind of real serious game, we played other games, but this is our first actual serious game with refs and with sidelines and stuff like that.“

The series with the Yukon Women’s All-Stars consisted of three games, with the other two matches being played earlier in the season.

Thomson hopes the team can improve upon their results from the previous AWG.

“I just hope we do well in the N.W.T. and just play our hardest,“ she said “As a team I want to win, personally, but I just want to have a good tournament, no regrets, no fears.“

Jennifer Grandy was a player on the Yukon Womens’ All-Star team. Sunday marked the third time Grandy has played against the AWG girls’ volleyball team and she said they have improved from earlier in the season.

“They are a good team,“ she said. “I think if their skills aren’t getting better than they are definitely working harder for each point, scrambling a bit more and coming up with bigger plays.“

Grandy has been playing volleyball for 15 years and has experience competing at the university level. She thinks the girls’ team has a good chance to well at the AWG.

“Volleyball is a game of ups and downs, so if your team gets down it can be really hard to come back from that,“ Grandy said. “So if you have a team that can stay up and stay positive, which they appear to do and Al (Foster) is a very positive coach. When things go wrong in volleyball and they always do those are really great qualities in a team, so they should have every opportunity to do well.“

The boys’ AWG volleyball team didn’t do quite as well as the girls, winning one set out of four on Sunday. The boys did get better as the match went on though and managed to get a victory in their final set, which has their head coach, Don Fedus, pleased about the experience.

“It was about teambuilding because they haven’t been able to play any games just because of their busy basketball schedule and up in Whitehorse it is difficult to setup games,“ he said. “So this was great for them.“

Fedus said he is looking forward to the AWG.

“I am excited about the team that we have and we are looking forward to having a very positive experience and going up and winning some games,“ he said. “Our goal is to represent the Yukon well in all aspects as well as to play to the best of our ability.“