PHOTO SUBMITTED The Crescent Heights girls volleyball team celebrates a second-straight zone banner Saturday, Nov. 16, 2019 in Lethbridge.
The more times Crescent Heights and Monsignor McCoy’s girls volleyball teams play each other, the better. Or so it seems.
The Vikings took round four from the Colts Saturday in Lethbridge, earning the South Zone 3A banner a week after McCoy claimed a league title.
With the zone having two berths into provincials, they can now both hope for one final rematch – perhaps with something even bigger on the line.
“Whoever plays a little cleaner with less errors seems to come out on top, and I think that was what we did a little better than them in this zone final, was have a couple less errors,” said Crescent Heights coach Scott Galloway, noting the teams are 2-2 in head-to-head matchups this fall. “To be honest we have been very tight with them all year. The four matches we played, it’s gone back and forth.”
Saturday’s best-of-five final went the distance, with scores of 25-22, 22-25, 25-16, 20-25 and 15-12. Crescent Heights now has back-to-back zone titles after 27 years without.
Galloway figured it might be a city final rematch even before the zones began.
“We definitely expected to hopefully meet them again,” he said. “With us being seeded one and two, what I mentioned to my girls was the plan was we would see them one more time, and it would be in the final at zones. That’s exactly what happened.”
The semifinals were arguably more important, however, as the winners there were the ones headed to provincials. The Vikings beat LCI 3-0 (25-23, 25-22, 25-8), while McCoy knocked off Eagle Butte in four sets.
There’s no question having such strong teams in the same city has helped both sides.
“We feel like we have one of the more competitive zones in Alberta, and with strong teams in our zone it hopefully gives us a competitive edge once we get to provincials,” said Galloway.
Provincials begin Thursday in St. Paul. Crescent Heights is in a six-team pool with Cochrane, St. Joseph, St. Peter the Apostle, Peace Wapiti Academy and St. Paul. McCoy plays Beaverlodge, Edmonton Christian, Holy Rosary, Barrhead and Springbank in their pool. The top three teams from each move on to Saturday afternoon’s playoff round.
Meanwhile in the 3A zone boys final, no Hat-area teams were able to get a provincial berth. The LCI Rams defeated the Cardston Cougars 3-0. Both teams advance to provincials as well.
With only one spot on the line in for the South’s 4A teams, Hat High fell short in both boys and girls playoffs in Lethbridge.
The Mohawks boys lost to Chinook in their zone final, while the Kwahommies girls were not part of their final, won by Chinook over Catholic Central.
