The Peacock Toilers made short work of the Vanier Vikings and Spirits on Tuesday night in Moose Jaw High School Senior Volleyball action.
The Spirits struggled to kick-off the night in girls action with the Toilers coming away with a straight set win. The Vikings could avenge the girls loss and also fell in straight sets against the Toilers.
Peacock Builds Off Strong Weekend
Confidence was high among the Peacock Toiler senior girls volleyball team heading into their league game on Tuesday against the Vanier Spirits.
Peacock was coming off a strong showing at the Winston Knoll tournament in Regina on the weekend in which they made it all the way to the semifinals. They carried that over into a commanding straight set win over Vanier.
“It was just a little bit of momentum from the weekend,” said Peacock coach Jenn Prokopetz. “We're young, we've got a lot of new players, but everyone is working really hard and everyone has come together as a team so far really quickly. We're really happy with our performance tonight.”
Peacock controlled much of the match through the three sets, but Vanier was able to fight back in all three sets to make them close with the Toilers winning 25-20, 25-22 and 25-17.
“We thought the girls played well to battle back, but the amount of missed serves and mental, unforced errors,” said Rick Bell, Vanier head coach. “We probably 17 or 19 missed serves and against a team like Peacock, if you miss that many serves, I don't care who you are, you're not going to win.”
Peacock was able to capitalize on the missed serves and miscues by Vanier to build up big leads. While the Spirits looked a bit off, Peacock was able to play a strong game throughout the match.
“We had a great passing night,” said Prokopetz. “We served and passed really well on the weekend and the girls are feeling really confident... They felt good, they felt calm and confident going into this game.”
While Peacock was playing confident, Bell said that's what was missing from his team's game.
“Early in the season it's just about having confidence in yourself, when you're still looking at somebody else to pass the ball and it falls between two of you, that has to be done with,” he said. “This is senior ball and those types of mistakes just can't happen.”
Vanier will try to regroup as they get set to head out to Caronport on Thursday night, while Peacock will make the trip to Rouleau.
Vanier Out of Sync; Peacock Rolls
After a strong showing in their season opening game last week against Central, the Vanier Vikings just didn't have it on Tuesday at Peacock as they lost in three straight sets to the Toilers.
The opening set was a back-and-forth between the two teams with Peacock finally pulling ahead for the 25-20 win, but the next two sets were all Toilers as they won 25-11 and 25-13 to finish off the sweep.
“It seems like we got to the second set, Peacock definitely upped their game and we didn't respond the way that we wanted to,” said Jeff Anuik, Vanier coach. “Once the pressure got on, we sort of went into a shell, didn't stay aggressive and when we got timid like that, that's when the errors started to pile up more than in the first set.”
Peacock played a strong game throughout as they controlled the net and had their passing on point all game long.
“It was one of the nights where we passed pretty well,” said Peacock head coach Paul Thoroughgood. “When you pass the ball well, it's a fairly easy game.”
The Toilers are young team this year with just two grade 12s and one grade 11 on the squad, but they didn't play like it on Tuesday as the players attacked the net hard.
“It was nice to see us execute some middles, both our middles are grade 10s and having not run quicks in the middle before, it was nice to see us execute a few of those on free balls,” said Thoroughgood. “That will be big for us later in the year and free up some corner offence for us.”
While happy with his team's play, Thoroughgood felt like they didn't see all that Vanier had to offer in the win.
“They're a good team, they've got some good athletes, so I expect that they'll be strong,” he said. “We played them in Lumsden and they played a lot better there. They're better than they showed tonight.”
The first set was more of the Vanier team that is expected this year and Anuik said they will point that effort as what they want to see from the team moving forward.
“Look at the calibre you played in that first set, that's the type of team that you are,” he said. “The second and third is something that you reflect on, but you have to be able to have a short memory and be able to let it go and go to the gym tomorrow and be prepared to work twice as hard to be that team from the first set.”
Vanier returns to the court on Thursday in Caronport against the Cougars as part of a doubleheader with the girls squad, while Peacock won't see league action again until next Tuesday when they face Cornerstone.
Other Tuesday action... At Cornerstone, the Falcons up ended the defending provincial champion Central Cyclones in four sets (15-25, 25-13, 25-7 and 25-14) in the boys game, while the Central girls lost in straight sets to the Caronport Cougars (25-13, 25-19 and 25-23).