Vikings dominate the Lions at OFSAA volleyball semi-finals

By Rachel Bell 

BELLEVILLE – The Lockerby Vikings from Sudbury advanced in the OFSAA volleyball championships consolation bracket after a win Wednesday morning at the Christian Quinte High School.

The Vikings of Sudbury beat the the St James Lions from Guelph three sets to two. 

St James Lions stole the spotlight for the first two sets winning them both.

However as the game went on the Vikings made an impressive comeback.

“We started off slow in the first set, but we pushed ourselves through. We came here knowing we would win,” said Taylor Wilkson, the starting setter on the team.

Competing takes a lot of time and effort, explained Wilkson.

“We practice every single day, Monday to Thursday, we competed in Toronto against better competition and in North Bay and almost every weekend in Sudbury, so we did a lot of playing and practicing.”

Wilkson, a grade twelve student, has been playing volleyball since she was in grade seven.

“I’m on two teams. After my two hour practice I go to another two hour practice, same with a lot of other girls on the team. All of us are really committed and have a passion,” she said.

Coach Stephen Beausoleil said confidence is a big key to success in the game.

“We work really hard in practice, and really hard on technique. We work on trying to promote their confident levels as the season goes on, which I call pumping their tires; making them feel good about themselves and their skills. If they’ve done all the work in the gym they deserve to keep going on.” 

Beausoleil said the team strategized as the game went on, seeing as their usual plan wasn’t working.

“For the first two sets we went with our regular system with subs, but it wasn’t working against them. We ended up putting in a completely different lineup, we had players playing different positions. We had never practiced the line up we used for the last three sets today. I had an idea that we needed to try something different, and the players really stepped up,” he said.

The Vikings are in the consolation bracket, due to a loss against St Mary’s in three sets. If they win their next game they will be 9th overall, and if they lose they will be 10th overall in the consolation bracket.