Jason Stockfish | [email protected]
After their first loss of the Provincial Championship earlier today, the Jasper Cougars stepped onto the St. Mary鈥檚 Saints' court ready for redemption tonight.
For those watching live, technical difficulties prevented the viewer from knowing how Jasper found themselves up 19-15 in their first set against the Saints.
But one could hazard a guess that the tight-knit squad wasn鈥檛 taking anything for granted and knew their hosts would not be serving anything to them on a silver platter.
The Saints came within two, but Kalan Sawchuck made the most of an exceptional diving assist from Dexter Fawcett as he hammered a decisive spike to get his team up 20-17.
Once more St. Mary鈥檚 came within two, but when it was Ethan Perepolkin鈥檚 turn to serve for Jasper he didn鈥檛 miss his mark, knocking over the receiver on his first serve and destroying the ball on his second.
On Perepolkin鈥檚 third serve, Michael Hayashi and Dexter Fawcett combined to form a human wall that the Saints had no chance of breaking through.
The home team then called a timeout, which seemingly helped them for a moment as they scored the next two points, but an errant serve got the Cougars to 24 and then an uncontainable spike from Fawcett sealed the deal for Jasper in the first set.
The second set started with a hard to handle serve from Hayashi to put Jasper up 1-0.
A series of missed serves from both sides resulted in the next few points for each team.
As the Cougars went up 5-4, their game was coming together as their positioning seemed telegraphed before the play could unfold and their opponents were beginning to scramble.
When Dylan Skinner hammered the Cougars鈥� sixth point, the Saints looked disoriented.
Perepolkin鈥檚 serving magic continued as he helped his team to create a 10-5 lead, before the ball got away on them and Vegreville began to collect themselves.
The Saints had some serving success of their own for a decent stretch and created a three-point lead to make it 15-12.
Perhaps realizing they were too loose, the Cougars tightened up their play, starting with an in-your-face stuff by Sawchuck to get them within one, and a sacrificial dive from Fawcett kept the ball alive so the Cougars could tie the game at 15.
The Saints did all they could to keep the game close, but Jacob Bouchard鈥檚 resilience and dynamite positioning allowed him to be where the ball was going, and he kept the play alive numerous times as he helped his team weather the onslaught.聽
Dylan Skinner made a miraculous save to allow his team to get to 20, and the Saints couldn鈥檛 return the ball for Jasper鈥檚 twenty-first point.
Sawchuck put his team within three right before a tight play by Claxton, Fawcett and Perepolkin put Jasper within two points away from a win.
At this point, St. Mary鈥檚 could see the writing on the wall, and their positioning and timing fell apart as they were unable to return the ball as the Cougars got within one.
The game winning point came when Skinner stuffed the ball back at the Saints and crashed whatever party the hosts may have had planned.
The Cougars next game is on Saturday, Nov. 26, at 2:45 p.m.
Full coverage of Provincials is available at
