So close. Yet so far away.
The Cochrane High School Cobras made it their goal to reach the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association 3A high school varsity boy’s provincial volleyball tournament this weekend (Nov. 20-22).
On their home floor, Cobras worked their way into the South Central Zone 3A final against Holy Trinity Academy (HTA) Knights of Okotoks on Nov. 15. Having defeated HTA in round-robin play, Cobras needed to defeat Knights once more to earn the trip to Fort McMurray for provincials.
But the Knights had other ideas, downing their hosts 2-0 (25-22, 25-23) in the final to earn the lone 3A provincial berth out of the South Central Zone.
“We didn’t put together the complete match that we wanted to,” Cobras boy’s head coach Doug Jensen said following the loss.
The 2014 Rocky View Sports Association (RVSA) varsity boy’s Division champs were unable to overcome slow starts in both sets against Knights. Furious comebacks fell short as HTA had enough gas left in the tank to close out the final after a long tournament featuring seven high school varsity boy’s volleyball teams from the South Central Alberta region.
“We had a couple of slow starts, and that’s been an issue for us all year long,” Jensen continued. “We battled late in the first and we battled late in the second. We showed some real guts battling back at 23-15. We could have just as easily rolled over and died. But it takes a lot of maturity and a lot of guts to get back in that game and make an attempt to win.”
Playing in RVSA, Cobras hadn’t seen Foothills Athletic Council’s Knights this year until the Zone tournament.
“We had heard lots of good things about them,” Jensen said of HTA. “They hit the ball hard. They execute really well. They do all the things really well that make them a great team. They just got the job done.”
It was the final match for seven graduating Cobras – Ross Mills, Rhett Devlin, James Syme, Andrew McLeod, Kyle Paltzat, Ryan Leckie and Bailey Kimmel.
Leckie said HTA was one of the best teams Cobras faced this year.
“Their hitters are super dynamic and played really well,” Leckie observed. “They got everything up. It was tough. They did everything right and we just had a couple of mistakes and had to fight back.”
