MIDDLETON - Clare Loups girls faced some tough competition, but toughed it out to take the NSSAF Division 2 senior girls’ volleyball Provincial in a hard-fought battle against Strait Area Education Recreation Centre Dec. 2 in Middleton.
In the end, it was 19-25, 25-12, and 15-9 for Clare and the banner, with Par-en-Bas defeating host Middleton in the third-place contest.
Adrien Comeau coached Clare to the Western Regional banner Nov. 18 and 19 with West Kings and Middleton also advancing from the Western Region. Millwood, SAERC, and South Colchester advanced from their regions and Digby and Par-en-Past advanced to provincials from a weekend tournament the next week, completing the eight-team Provincials tournament.
Asked about the competition at Provincials, Comeau said it was stiff.
“It was hard competition, a well-fought battle,” Comeau said. “Coming into this tournament we knew every team had the possibility to win, or come close to winning.”
He said the final against SAERC was pretty tough, the semi-finals was tough, and every game was a battle. “We knew coming in here every team could win.”
Connell Impressed
“I want to congratulate all the teams here this weekend,” said Middleton coach Trevor Connell after the medals presentations. “Being a host it’s always great to have coaches that are so easy to get along with, so easy to work with.”
Connell was also impressed with the players during the Provincials tournament and throughout the year.
“Ladies, you represented your schools amazingly well, you deserve to hold your heads extremely high,” Connell said during the closing ceremony. “You should be very proud of how you behaved all season, played all season, worked together and learned. I’ve done this a long time and this is one of the nicest one’s I’ve seen. You have a lot of talent ladies. You should be proud.”
NSSAF executive director Steve Gallant was on hand to present the banner to the Clare captains.
Connell said the Middleton Monarchs had a good Provincials tournament.
“We finished higher that we were ranked coming in,” he said. “All the teams here were really good. There were teams that ranked higher that on another day could have been in a different finishing position. It was very good volleyball. The girls played really well.”
