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Lakers show strength in first tournament of season

The HJ Cody Lakers senior girls volleyball team was at Red Deer College on Sept. 4 and 5 in the first tournament of the year.
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The HJ Cody Lakers senior girls volleyball team’s season is now underway. Back row: Erin Matthews

The HJ Cody Lakers senior girls volleyball team was at Red Deer College on Sept. 4 and 5 in the first tournament of the year. The team is still in the building stage with them only having had one practice. The team brought with them girls from Grades 10, 11 and 12, with a lot of the girls having never played together before.

They started the tournament out very strong with two convincing wins on the Friday night as they began to figure out each other’s playing styles. The first game was against West Central JV (Rocky Mountain House) with strong wins of 25-12 and 25-18. Then they came against Lacombe Composite JV winning the sets 25-17 and 25-22. Great start to the tournament.

Saturday had the girls arriving at 7:15 a.m. for an 8 a.m. start against David Thompson (blue) with another convincing win at 25-13 and 25-21. Then, the last of the round-robin games was against Lindsay Thurber (Red Deer), who are a very strong team to which the girls lost both sets 18-25 and 19-25, but played really strongly. The last game put the team in second place in their pool and into the top pool for playoffs.

The opening game was against Ponoka, with a commanding win of 25-14 and 25-19, taking the team to the semi-finials against CACHS (Central Alberta Christian High School from Lacombe), whom they beat 25-14, and then a closer 25-21. After that win, that brought them to the final game in which they went up against the strong Thurber team again. They played two well-fought sets but lost both to Thurber 19-25 and 22-25, leaving them in second place overall in the tournament.

Throughout the tournament the girls had some amazing digs and ups and some incredible hits. We look forward to a very strong season this year from the senior girls volleyball team. Their next game is a home game at HJ against Wetaskiwin.