It was about saving face for the Vanier Spirits this time around when facing the Caronport Cougars.
“It was a much better start than last year. We were happy to have Caronport here first. We had something to prove not only to ourselves, but also to our fans,” said Rick Bell, head coach of the Spirits. “Last year, I think they finished us in 45 minutes so to go over two hours this time shows how much the girls wanted to play and how hard they wanted to beat them.”
Although the outcome wasn’t what the Spirits would have hoped for, as the Cougars won a marathon five-set game 25-20, 26-28, 25-23, 23-25 and 25-17 in senior girls volleyball action on Thursday evening.
“Until the last game, you could tell that we ran out of batteries a little bit. It was high energy, very intense and much like a playoff game,” said Bell.
The Cougars added five new girls to their roster and although they have things to work on, it was a productive win for the first game of the season.
“I think we did well for our first game. We still have a lot of things to improve on. For it being our first full game of the season, I think we were able to get some rust off from the summer,” said Shannon Koshman, head coach of the Cougars.
With the new faces on the team, Koshman was pleased with the comfort level of the players on the court.
“We have five new girls on the team and some girls that are playing positions that they haven’t really learned yet, so it was nice to see them all working together, but we had our key players step up,” she said.
For more on this story, read an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
