THUNDER BAY – Sports – The first Jr. Boys Volleyball Tournament of the year took place this past Friday evening and Saturday. Hammarskjold, Churchill, St. Ignatius, and LaVerendrye brought in large teams and played numerous sets of volleyball.
All matches at the event were best 3 of 5 games. This allowed all the teams to play as many sets of volleyball as possible.
St.Ignatius finished the round-robin in first with a perfect 3-0 record winning all of their matches in straight sets,3-0.
Hammarskjold finished in second place and took on the 3rd place finisher, LaVerendrye.
Churchill finished with the right to play St. Ignatius for the semi final.
In semi final number 1, St.Ignatius defeated Churchill 3-1. 16-25, 25-8, 25-23,and 25-20. The tournament saw Churchill play everyone as did all teams to gain exposure to new systems and style of play. Their improvement was obvious as they gave St.Ignatius a handful in the semi final.
In the second Semi-final, LaVerendrye defeated Hammarskjold 3-2, 16-25, 25-14, 25-6, 21-25, and 15-9. Again both teams gained valuable playtime from their round-robin and as the tournament progressed the level of play increased dramatically.
The 3rd place game saw Churchill’s improvement continue against a deflated Hammarskjold team 3-0, 25-18,25-15, and 25-21.
Our final was a classic example of 2 very skilled and athletic teams battling for every point. St.Ignatius defeated LaVerendrye 3-1 by close scores of, 25-21, 21-25, 25-22, and 25-22.
Congratulations to all coaches and athletes who took the weekend to start the season off strong!
Tournament organizer, and Lakehead coach, Chris Green remarked about the tournament, “I was amazed at the number of players on these teams and just again how much our local coaches give to these athletes. This is an amazing group of athletes as I have ever seen in this sport in this city!”
“Volleyball is getting bigger and better not only on the girls side but clearly on the boys side. We saw the introduction of new rules designed to give the athletes more skill opportunities, and they will help to benefit our game. I congratulate St.Ignatius on a great weekend and the rest of the teams deserve recognition for how good they look this early in the season. Our next action is the Senior Boys event at PACI on Oct. 21st and 22nd. I also want to recognize the work of the LU Girls who ran and officiated this event. Another “job” in their already busy academic athlete lives.”