Experience is no problem when the St. Thomas More Knights senior girls volleyball team comes to play.
Expectations aren’t, either.
It isn’t just that the roster of 13 is buoyed nine-strong by Grade 12 players who have tasted provincial-level competition for two and even three of the past seasons.
They’ve earned their stripes through various court challenges, which included capturing the B.C. Catholic senior girls title less than two weeks ago, beating No. 1-AAA school Little Flower Academy in straight sets. It was a victory cemented with sharp ball placement, a stinging counter attack and unwavering defence.
Knights head coach Becky Lang believes the squad’s sum of skills and dedication can deliver down the road.
“This year the goal from the beginning was to win the provincials, and the season’s gone as well as expected,” said Lang. “We would have liked to have won more tournaments but even there we faced a lot of very-strong AAAA schools, like Handsworth and Belmont.”
As a 2-A team in a 4-A world, St. Thomas More got to play the underdog and roll with the punches. In their Lower Mainland Independent league, the knocks were hard to find. Losing just one set over a 6-0 regular season, the Burnaby squad trained for tournament play, led by twins Anika and Vanesa Gatto and middle Elizabeth Bilawey. All three are provincial team members.
En route to Thursday’s league final (played past the NOW’s deadline) against AA No-5 rated West Point Grey, STM suffered a second set loss before regrouping and beating York House 3-1 yesterday.
The final is a rematch of a year ago, when West Point Grey got the upperhand.
It didn’t take long of a search for Lang to note “redemption” would be in play.
“The team is very determined,” she said. “When we were listing team goals the first (chronologically) was to win the league. As the only Burnaby team we do a fair amount of travelling into Vancouver, and the rest of the league is fairly competitive.”
In past years, the team has fared well in getting to the provincials, where they’ve exited with back-to-back fifth place showings. In 2015 it came despite nearly half the team falling sick on the eve of the tournament.
Last year, Vanesa Gallo was named a provincial all-star.
The core of the team also powered to a provincial bronze as juniors in 2015, where the Gatto sisters earned all-star honours. That roster also included current seniors Martina Fadi, Giovanna Janes and Maya Mistry.
Having such a deep roster of seniors – driven to end their high school run with a crown – has made it an interesting ride so far.
“It’s an abnormally large group of seniors, but I try to spread the playing time as much as possible,” noted Lang. “I don’t know if being ranked in the top-three all year has added much pressure for the players, but maybe for the coaches?” Lang paused to laugh. “The players seem to take it in stride.”
The Knights will co-host the AA Lower Mainlands next week, with first-day action at the Burnaby facility on Nov. 16, with the tourney also being played at Richmond Christian.
