It could have gone either way in that fifth and final set at Peacock Collegiate. A battle between the second-placed Peacock Toilers and third-placed Riverview Royals was played out on Tuesday evening in the senior boys semifinal volleyball match.
As the teams traded sets, it came down to the final set and the Toilers were able to put it away and win the game 3-2.
“I thought it was a well-played match by both teams. To go five and all games were closed and contested until the end,” said Peacock’s coach Paul Thoroughgood. “There was some great scrappy defence and at times, good offence. It was an exciting volleyball game.”
Peacock opened with a 25-17 win, but Riverview battled for a 25-22 second set win. The Toilers won the third set 25-19 and the Royals won the next set 25-19. In the fifth set, both teams traded points, but Peacock was able to go on a bit of a run and secure the 25-20 victory.
“We’ve gone back and forth with Riverview all year and they are a good team,” said Thoroughgood. “It was nice for us to get the last one on them. It was a good battle.”
The Royals are young and a smaller sized team. They battled throughout the season and had some players step up in key situations to keep the team going in difficult games.
“I saw a really high level of competitiveness. We never gave up and we played hard,” said Riverview’s coach Jenn Wiens. “We have very young players that had to step up and they stepped up when they needed to. We played really well…the best we could.”
The Toilers are still a fairly young team as well, but set a goal that they felt was reachable at the beginning of the season and after defeating the Royals, that goal came true — a spot in the league final.
“When our team sat down at the beginning of the year and said what our goal was for the season. If we could get to the city final with a team that is really in year two of our rebuilding process, that is a great goal for us,” explained Thoroughgood.
For more on this story, read an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
