The Hat High Hawks senior girls celebrate their first place win at their home volleyball tournament. Both Hat High girls and boys teams won first place in the three-day tournament spanning Thursday to Saturday.--NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
It was a successful weekend for the Hat High senior volleyball ball teams as both the girls and boys squads took first place in the Hawks tournament last weekend.
Hat High hosted seven other teams from the city and surrounding area for the three day tournament that started Thursday afternoon and ended Saturday night.
The senior girls faced Brooks in the finals on Saturday and beat them in two straight sets to keep the championship at home.
Senior girls assistant coach Amber Stigter said it’s always nice to win at home and that she was super happy with how the team performed.
“The girls came together and they played like a team all weekend,” Stigter said. “I think in the final here it showed that throughout the whole weekend they were able to build each other up and play hard together.”
Stigter said the girls were coming off of a rough weekend tournament in Lethbridge, and Saturday’s tournament win gave them a lot of confidence heading into their next league game and upcoming tournaments. Stigter said their opponent, Brooks, played amazing all tournament long.
“They played good all weekend. We haven’t seen them since our league game against them so being able to see the difference between then and now, they played well and it was a good match,” Stigter said.
As the girls’ finals match was wrapping up, the Hawks boys volleyball team was in a back-and-forth final against Kate Andrews. Hat High took the first set against the Coaldale-based school before narrowly losing the second set to force a third and decisive set.
Both teams had multiple opportunities to end it but it was the Hawks who made the most of a Kate Andrews mis-serve to seal the win with a successful attack over the net, taking the set 19-17.
Senior boys coach Jordan Weimer said despite the nerves of the close third set, he had never felt more calm than he did after the match.
“The weekend was a great weekend of volleyball and to cap it off like this means so much to the school with both the girls and the boys winning, it is just a dream end to a tournament,” Weimer said.
He added he couldn’t be more proud of how the boys played over the weekend and how much they’ve come together as a team throughout the season.
“They’ve built, especially team chemistry,” Weimer said. “They’ve got all the skill in the world, they’ve got the size, they just needed to put it together with each other and they’ve done that recently.”
Hawks athletic director Chad Watson said he was happy with how the tournament went off for Hat High teams, but also being able to safely people in stands to watch the kids.
“I am just so happy with how everyone behaved this weekend with the masks rules and the vaccines, fans from all over the city and of course Airdrie and Coaldale, they were super awesome this weekend,” Watson said. “Everyone followed AHS protocols, it was just a super successful weekend.”
McCoy and Crescent Heights results
Both of the girls and boys teams from Crescent Heights won the consolation finals at the tournament. The boys beat the junior Hawks volleyball team while the girls beat the McCoy Colts in the consolation finals.
As for the McCoy boys team, they lost in the third-place final to Eagle Butte and finished in fourth.
