YORKTON - The Yorkton Regional High School was the host site for the 5A Senior Girls Southern Re-gional Provincial playdowns Saturday.
The host Raiders were hoping home court would help propel the team to a provincial finals berth – the six team playdowns would advance two team – and early on things looked good.
In round robin play the Raiders won over Weyburn but then lost to Swift Current.
Yorkton advanced to the quarter final where they defeated Moose Jaw Peacock. The win advanced YRHS to one of the semi final contest where the string ran out for the Raiders in a loss to Balgonie.
Yorkton would finish third, but needed a top-two finish to advance to provincials which will be hosted by Weyburn.
Raider coach Dion Pfeifer noted that while being ranked in the top-six in the province the team needed to pull an upset against number one Swift or number three Balgonie and it just did not happen, even though he noted the Raiders “played both those teams tough” playing some “really good volleyball.”
The good news, while they will be missed the YRHS program only graduated two grade 12s - Anna Bulych and Zoe Bolme, so the team “will be returning 10 players next year and should be a force to be reckoned with the next couple years,” said Pfeifer.
Overall, it was still a very successful year for the YRHS senior girls team with a number of strong tournament finishes including; third at the U of S, third at Regina Megavolley, first at PA St. Mary (largest and most competitive tourney of the year), first at YRHS, fourth at the Campbell invitational, fifth at the Saskatoon Mustang Volley invitational, fourth in Swift Cur-rent, and third at Southern Regionals.
It was “such an awesome group of girls,” said Pfeifer, adding they “worked hard every single day, and represented themselves, the YRHS, their parents with the utmost respect on and off the court - every single day at practice and weekend tourneys.”
