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.
Hapnot's senior volleyball teams were in Brandon last weekend for a major tournament, with a total of 40 teams participating from across the province. Both the Kings and Kweens played well, but did not finish as high as they would have liked. The girls faced some tough competition and were only able to win one game, while the boys started off fairly strong, but couldn't finish teams off heading into the playoff round. The Kings started off with a game Friday morning against Winnipeg's Vincent Massey Trojans, a 'AAAA' school ranked ninth in the province. Hapnot came out fighting and nearly beat them in the first set, losing 25-22 in a game they could have won. The second set was 25-15 for the Trojans. Their second game was against Portage la Prairie, and Hapnot beat them 25-21 and 25-8. Against Glenbourough in their third game, Hapnot struggled a bit and lost two sets 25-20 against a team they were capable of beating, according to coach Mike Nychuk. "I don't know if it's a problem that we haven't seen these teams before, and our guys aren't used to playing a caliber of volleyball that these other teams have," he said. "To be honest, we beat up on the northern teams, and when we get down south, it's a little different story." Next Hapnot played Sanford and split, winning and losing by a score of 25-15. Because of the split, Hapnot finished fourth in their pool, dropping them into the consolation round where the highest they could finish would be ninth place. Unfortunately their skid continued, losing to Roblin, Carberry and Souris in close sets. "We should have beat them," said Nychuk of all three games. "These teams didn't outclass us, they weren't better than us. Our guys started making mistakes that they have never ever made before. We were blowing serves and hitting balls into the net. Reliable players that this stuff doesn't happen with just weren't stepping up to where they need to be. I think that if we had a few more southern tournaments and got to see these teams a few more times, our guys wouldn't think they can't compete." Next for Hapnot is the Zone 11 Championships in The Pas against Thompson, MBCI and Norway House, where it is expected to be Flin Flon versus Thompson in the finals. "Whether our guys decide they can beat them or not will determine whether or not we win," said Nychuk. "We are the better team. We pass better than they do, and we're a better rounded team. For some reason, when we play them, we start falling apart. It's more of a mental thing than a physical thing with us." Both the Kings and Kweens are looking for better showings in The Pas this weekend, as the winner of the Zone Championships will advance to Provincials two weeks later.
