The St. Francis Crusaders outlasted the Porter Creek Rams in YSAA (Yukon Schools Athletic Association) action last Friday evening at Porter Creek Secondary School (PCSS) in Whitehorse.

In the first game of the evening before a boisterous crowd, the Crusader girls bested the Ram girls 25-18, 25-22 and 25-13 in three competitive sets.

The game MVPs were Jayden Martsinkiw of St. Francis and Kaidence Estrada of Porter Creek. Both were dominant at times during the game.

St. Francis coach Krysha Rubio said "It's my first time coaching these girls and it's hard because I played with them before but we're getting the professional thing, and like, being their friend off-court but when we do practice, we get down to business."

Rubio said it was evident that it was her girls' first game.

"Everyone was just nervous but I tried my best to get their energy up and be all positive and like, 'just let it go. If you make a mistake, let it go.'"

Rubio thought team bonding was the key to victory.

"Overall, since they're Grade 11 and 12, usually they're separated, but with the bond of my team, it's gonna get stronger. It's already strong, but it's gonna get stronger. Everyone's pretty close, everyone's friends and I just want to keep it that way."

The young coach, only 22, said she was looking forward to the next game and putting in more hard work, since they haven't been able to put in a lot of work because of COVID-19 restrictions. "I try my best to get them back on court," related Rubio.

She added "I just hope that more people come to support our girls. It's great to have them play on the court and be more active."

PCSS Rams co-coach Kendra Peters thought that the game was "pretty good. Our girls are kind of new to volleyball, especially with COVID happening, they haven't had a lot of years of playing so, yeah, they've been really improving this entire season so far. It's just the beginning. They did really good."

Co-coach Caelon Workman added "I think it went pretty well. We definitely improved a lot ... they definitely – all of them try super hard for every ball … it's really good to see them bringing it together."

The two co-coaches said there was room for improvement.

"Just them knowing their positions better," said Peters. "We kind of (have) thrown them into new positions they haven't been in before, so just learning how to play those positions and being confident with themselves."

Workman added "And then our serve receive needs a little work still, so I think if we get that together – we're gonna work on that, so hopefully it'll improve the whole game."

Both coaches are looking forward to their next game, a rematch with St.Francis on Oct. 6.

"Just bringing new energy in," said Peters.

"So we're definitely going to work on a lot of things in practice hopefully to improve and hopefully we can take at least a set, if not the game against them," added Workman. "That would be nice to see."

A very competitive boys' game followed the girls contest. St. Francis took the first two sets 25-16, 25-14, lost an epic third set 30-28, then bounced back to take the last set 25-8 to claim victory.

The game MVPs were Angelo Coringal of the Crusaders and Zander Underhill of the Rams.

Sebastian Tajonera, captain of the Crusaders, thought it was a good game.

"It was very fun, especially for our boys and I think it was a good night for most of us."

Tajonera agreed that the third set, which featured the teams going back and forth after being tied 25-25, was an epic battle.

"We sort of mixed up our normal rotation but I think it worked out pretty well. The boys had fun and we came back in the (fourth) set stronger.

"The key to victory, I think it was just not missing our serves, because I think, for the past few years, that's been our weakness in our game but as soon as we cleaned that up, the game speaks for itself."

Tajonera noted that out of the 23 players on the team, all the Grade-12's got into the game.

Tajonera also had high praise for one of his Crusaders teammates. "Number 12 is a beast, Angelo Coringal. Shout out."