The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
"It just ripped my heart out to see them lose when they were so dominant," said Hapnot Collegiate Kopper Kings coach Craig McIntosh, on his team's performance after losing the Zone 11 volleyball championship to the RD Parker Trojans last weekend. It was a heavyweight match that will likely be talked about for years. The intensity of the tilt was like no other as the Trojans stole the championship from the host team in three sets. Both coaches were left in awe as opportunities were blown to finish each other off. "It was (expletive) amazing," McIntosh said. "If I coach 20 years I will look back at that match at how amazing it was." After defeating the Trojans in the first set 25-20, the Kopper Kings failed to seal the championship in a second set which they lost 33-31. They then lost the final set 16-14. It wasn't from a lack of effort by the Kopper Kings. Their performance had a packed Hapnot gym going berserk. The second set, which provided the height of emotion, was a back and forth fight. The Trojans were never able to build a large lead on the Kopper Kings, whose power game was on. Peter Weber and Evan Renard were lethal in placing spikes in the Trojan zone that were unreachable and untouchable. "I was happy with how the guys played," McIntosh said on Monday, still in disbelief. "I couldn't be happier. They couldn't have dug deeper than I asked." After the Kopper Kings lost, the feeling was like the Titanic had sunk for a second time. Scott Vancoughnett was filled with such sorrow that he had a difficult time holding it in. "Everybody played above themselves," McIntosh said. "Their coach said we deserved to win." McIntosh appreciated the comment from his counterpart, but also gave them credit because they never gave up. "I respect that," he said. "That's important for someone not to throw in the towel." Things didn't end as well for the Kopper Kweens, either. They lost their semi-final match to the Margaret Barbour Collegiate Institute Spartans 25-16, 25-19. Kopper Kweens coach Ken Kittle as expected was upset and disappointed with the result. "I thought they played well," Kittle said. "They made a couple of mistakes that cost us, but otherwise they played like they should have." While their team didn't come out on a winning note, neither Kittle or co-coach Tiffany Anderson felt the opposition was better. Both believe the down point was a string six or seven points the Spartans scored on serves in a row. "I think you could just see the girls start to come down after that and they lost their intensity," Anderson said. The other drawback was giving up the easy points. "If you give them a free ball, you better make it hard for them to get it," Kittle said. Kopper Kweens captain Megan Hall felt the team tried as hard as they could. "We had a good come back but it didn't turn out like we wanted it to be," Megan said. "We'll come back harder next year and hopefully win."
