Three up, three down - the Hapnot senior Kweens won their third volleyball tournament of the season last weekend, while other Hapnot clubs came close to glory themselves.
Four of Hapnot’s volleyball teams - the senior varsity Kings and Kweens, and the junior varsity (JV) and junior varsity B Kweens - were in action last week, along with the senior and JV girls' Kodiaks teams from Creighton Community School.
The senior Kweens were in The Pas, playing at Margaret Barbour Collegiate Institute (MBCI) in the school’s invitational tournament Oct. 28-29.
In the opening round of pool play, the Kweens beat Cross Lake Mikisew 25-5, 25-20 and handed the Grand Rapids School Wolverines a 25-8, 25-9 loss, entering a six-team playoff round with a bye to the semifinals.
In their first matchup with Cranberry Portage’s Frontier Collegiate Raiders, Hapnot won 25-12, 25-12, setting up a date with the Oscar Lathlin Collegiate Wolverines from OCN. The Wolverines knocked out their cross-river rivals, the host MBCI Spartans, with a 25-24, 25-19 victory to earn their spot in the final.
Hapnot had their closest test of the weekend against the Wolverines, but ended up with a triumph, winning the tournament with a 25-17, 25-19 victory.
The win was the Kweens’ third tournament victory of the year, beating Swan Valley last month in a tournament in Swan River and beating the Warren Wildcats down south in September.
Creighton’s senior Kodiaks team also played in the tournament, taking part in the opposite draw as the Kweens. The Kodiaks did not have similar luck to their cross-border rivals, going 0-3 through pool play, taking losses to the host Spartans, Frontier and Oscar Lathlin and missing the playoff bracket.
Kings
Meanwhile, the Kings travelled to Morris for a tournament against major southern competition and reached the tournament finals before encountering a top-ranked opponent.
In pool play, the Kings won all six of the sets they played, beating the Elm Creek Cobras 25-19, 25-14, the St. Joachim Braves 25-18, 25-24 and Morris/St. Jean Baptiste 25-16, 25-9.
In the playoff bracket, the tournament’s top four teams faced off, with Hapnot playing the other pool’s second-best team, the Immanuel Christian Falcons from Winnipeg. The Kings would lose their first set of the weekend, but still beat the city squad 25-18, 23-25, 15-13 to move to the tournament final.
In that final, Hapnot would encounter the Rosenort Redhawks, the top team in the other pool and a team ranked third in the province going into the weekend. The Redhawks, like the Kings, went 6-0 through the opening pool round, but beat St. Joachim handily to get to the final.
The Kings fought hard, giving Rosenort their toughest test of the weekend, but lost 19-25, 19-25 in the end, finishing second place.
Both of Hapnot’s senior squads will head south for one of Manitoba’s biggest tournaments next weekend, the Spartan Dig tournament hosted by Brandon’s Neelin High School. A whopping 32 teams will play in the boys’ draw, with 40 clubs taking part in the girls’ tournament.
Hapnot’s Kweens will play the Grandview Spartans, Erickson Eagles and the Elton Sabres in their opening pool at the Dig. The Kings will play opening pool games against the Warren Wildcats and Morris/St. Jean Baptiste and will have a rematch with Rosenort.
Hapnot’s JV girls teams, as well as Creighton’s JV girls, played in Creighton in a hometown tournament, with the JV Kweens making it to the finals against Nipawin’s L.P. Miller Bears. The Bears would end up taking victory in the tournament final Saturday, handing the Kweens a second-place tournament finish.
