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Jason Stockfish | [email protected]

Coming off of two huge wins to start the Provincial Championship, the Jasper Cougars senior boys’ volleyball team fought hard in a tough loss to the Bawlf Wildcats this afternoon.

The first set saw a strong start for Jasper, with Michael Hayashi serving for the first two points of the game, but the Wildcats quickly evened the score.

Jasper’s Kalan Sawchuck smashed home his team’s third point, but again Bawlf tied it, and then took a one-point lead.

The Cougars responded in kind when Ty Claxton passed the ball to Dexter Fawcet, who assisted it back to Claxton for a staggering attack to make it 4-4.

Dylan Skinner proved too much for his opponents to handle when he tied the set 5-5 and then again 6-6.

The set was tied once more at seven points a side before the Wildcats notched the next three despite the Cougars' rallying efforts. 

Jasper narrowed the gap to two points on an errant serve to make it 9-11, however catching the Wildcats was proving difficult for the Cougars.

Sawchuck delivered a blistering blast for Jasper’s eleventh point, and Ethan Perepolkin obliterated the ball to make it 12-17, but Bawlf was determined to keep their lead.

A hard, sinking serve from Fawcett caught his opponents flat-footed to get them within four, but Bawlf reached 25 points before the Cougars could, and took the first set.

Whereas the Wildcats maintained the lead for most of the first set, it was the Cougars who kept their opponent at bay for most of the second.

Again, Jasper got on the board first with Skinner passing to Fawcett, who assisted a mesmerizing Hayashi attack.

The Cougars then went up 2-0 after they rallied to fight off Bawlf’s offense and get the point.

Ethan Perepolkin dug deep to keep the ball in play to allow Jasper to go up 6-3, and Sawchuck’s serve proved too much to handle to stretch the lead to four, but the Wildcats refused to let Jasper get a comfortable lead.

It remained a four-point advantage for the Cougars after Claxton and Hayashi stuffed the ball back in Bawlf’s zone, and it grew to five when the stunning combo of Jacob Bouchard, Skinner and Claxton put the Cougars up 16-11.

Jasper went up 21-17 on an incredible play by Bouchard, Fawcett and Hayashi, but by the time they reached 22, Bawlf had tied things up.

After that, the Wildcats put up two more to get within one point of the win.

The Cougars thrashed and fought with all they had to get to 23, sacrificing themselves with no concern for the consequences just to try and keep the ball in play to get to 24, but it did not happen. 

In the end, they didn’t win, however they are 2-1 going into their next game at 7:45 p.m. tonight against the host team, the St. Mary’s Saints.

Now they must battle with some adversity, as any team looking to become champions must do.