Oilfields won’t have to drill far for its shot at provincial volleyball silverware.
The Oilfields Drillers enter the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association 2A Boys Volleyball Championships as the No. 2 seed when High River’s Notre Dame Collegiate hosts the provincial finals from Nov. 23-25.
“It’s sport and that’s why you play the game,” said Drillers head coach Leigh Bretzlaff. “In all honesty, I don’t really focus on rankings, I just worry about what we can control and let’s keep our mindset on our 9x9 square, go have some fun and work hard.
“This is why you commit to these things, you go there to do your best and at the end of the day, what’s going to be, is going to be.”
The Drillers did not lose a set in a dominant performance at the South Central Zone tournament, held at Canmore’s Our Lady of the Snows on Nov. 17-18, to earn their spot in High River.
Oilfields dispatched the host team, Banff and Acme in round-robin before getting by Notre Dame Collegiate in the semifinal and the Strathcona-Tweedsmuir Spartans in the gold medal game.
“We played calm,” Bretzlaff said. “And just tried to put pressure on other teams by not making any unforced errors, just controlling our side of the court and what we could do.”
The 2023 provincials mark the first year the volleyball rankings come into play with power pools grouping the top four, middle four and remaining four teams.
Oilfields is grouped with the top-seed Calgary Christian along with Edmonton Christian and Coaldale’s Kate Andrews.
At the ASAA 4A Girls Provincial Championships, the Holy Trinity Academy Knights won’t have to travel far either.
Calgary is playing host to the provincials, Nov. 23-25 at a number of schools, with the Knights kicking off day one of the competition at both Centennial High and EP Scarlett.
HTA goes in as the No. 11 seed, pooled with Bowness, Notre Dame and Grande Prairie.
The Knights took home the 4A South Central Zone banner by knocking off the Foothills Falcons in the final, held at Airdrie’s W.H. Croxford.
HTA took out the hosts, Foothills, Bert Church and Chestermere in round-robin.
At the 4A boys zones across town at Airdrie’s Bert Church, the Knights and Falcons saw their runs to provincials cut short by Croxford, who took home the berth into the championships.
At the 2A girls South Central Zone finals, the host STS Spartans saw their run to provincials halted in a nailbiter final. Drumheller Valley took a three-set affair with the final game by a 15-13 margin.
STS won all of its pool play matches and two playoff games to get to the final.
The Drillers made it through to the quarterfinal round where they were knocked out by the Spartans.
For full information on the ASAA volleyball provincials, go to asaa.ca/championships.
