The future is bright for the Lord Selkirk Royals volleyball program.
Already strong at the varsity and junior varsity boys’ and girls’ levels, the Royals’ Grade 9 teams proved the system is in good hands at the Volleyball Manitoba Open Provincials held Nov. 28-30.
The girls’ team particularly shone with an undefeated run to provincial gold at Maples Collegiate, not dropping a single set all weekend. The boys also reached the podium, overcoming a slow start to secure bronze at Technical Vocational High School.
The girls opened with a 3-0 pool record with wins over the Springfield Sabres (25-19, 25-9), Kelvin Clippers (25-14, 25-20), and Oak Park Raiders (25-8, 25-11).
Selkirk carried that momentum into playoffs, defeating the Westwood Warriors (25-11, 25-12) in the round of 16, the MBCI Hawks (25-14, 25-18) in the quarterfinal, and the Steinbach Sabres (25-19, 25-11) in the semifinal.
In the final, they faced the St. Mary’s Flames and again were perfect on the scoreboard, winning in straight sets (25-19, 25-17) to cap a dominant provincial performance.
On the boys’ side, Selkirk dropped its opening matches to Gabrielle-Roy Les Roys (16-25, 21-25) and the Steinbach Sabres (16-25, 16-25) before turning things around.
They earned their first victory over the Garden City Gophers (25-21, 30-28) to move to 1-2.
After a close loss to Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute (25-27, 24-26), the Royals bounced back with a timely win over the Dakota Lancers (25-5, 25-21) to punch their ticket to the quarterfinal.
Selkirk kept rolling with a quarterfinal win over the CJS Olympiens (25-12, 25-21), setting up a semifinal rematch with Gabrielle-Roy. The teams battled through three tight sets, with the Royals narrowly missing out on a finals berth (25-22, 18-25, 17-19).
That led to another rematch — this time for bronze — against Daniel McIntyre.
The Royals came out strong, winning in straight sets (25-23, 25-17) to close out provincials with a medal finish.
