The Vanier Vikings senior boys volleyball team had a solid game all year long, winning the Moose Jaw city league, regionals and provincials over the course of two and a half dominating months.

Nathan Meili is a senior left side on the team and has been a part of two provincial championships, including their most recent triumph in North Battleford.

“We’ve all been working hard … since I’ve been in high school,” said Meili. “We all work hard during games too, and it’s nice to see that you’re putting in all the work and you’re getting something out of it.”

Last year, the team had some tough games in the playoffs but this year’s provincials, they went undefeated. They beat Melfort, Lumsden, Saskatoon’s E.D. Feehan and Marion Graham, and then beat Melville and Humboldt on their way to the final against host John Paul II,

“It’s our grade 12 year, so we want to go play as hard as we can and hopefully it ends up well, and that’s what happened.”

Senior libero Carter Benallick was thrilled with the victory.

“Our team just clicked like never before,” said Benallick. “Guys that don’t usually talk that much are just fired up and we were just going all weekend and we had our best game and that was just awesome.”

Last year, they had to overcome an injury to Gotana, but with him healthier this year, that made a huge difference.

“We had a lot more confidence going into it, we knew we were the favourites, we knew what we had to do to get it done, and that’s what we did,” said Benallick.

Gotana said practicing their passing all year made a big difference and he was glad to contribute to the hard work on the team.

At the same provincials, Central had a tough pool in the round robin and lost out of the playoffs on tiebreakers after posting a 1-3 record. Central defeated Sturgis in the round robin Friday, but fell to the John Paul II, Melville and Humboldt.