Sports | DrumhellerMail

DVSS senior girls V’ballers post big win in Trochu

Sarah Devereaux
| inSide Drumheller

The DVSS senior girls Dynos volleyball team had a good ending to the month.
volleyball pic copy

The team travelled to Trochu on Wednesday evening and for the first time this season, won their first game 25-16.
   “The girls played awesome. Defensively they were blocking solid. Nikki Thomson had great blocks and so did Brayden Peters. We served amazingly. There was a lot of serving runs from Peters with a run of three, Rachel Graf had a run of three and Payton Zacharuk had a run of five,” said head coach Erica Crocker.
   Crocker said Trochu won the next game 25-16 and noted that Trochu came out with aggression for that game.
   “We had some really long rallies. Offensively, Thomson, Samantha Hirsch and Karis Hilchey were making kills. (We had) really smart plays from our setters making effective dumps and scoring points in that regard,” Crocker said.
   In the next set, the two teams played a deciding match to 15 but took an unfortunate loss of 15-10.
   “We had some amazing plays by Mikaela Koustrup. Her defense (and offense) were great. Our libero is Makenna Lutz and she was performing amazing passes all night. She was digging dimes, she was passing and she was (also) swinging and making points,” she said.
   Crocker also noted that Samantha Ptashnik had two aces and long runs of serves throughout the game.
   “I was so proud of them. I really wished I had taped their first game to see the contrast between where they are now and where they were. It is just phenomenal. I am super proud of them. They are staying together as a team. It is the dynamic that these girls have. You can’t coach that. It is awesome that they are always there for each other and they are always smiling with each other. They have come a long way,” Crocker told inSide Drumheller.
   Over the past weekend (October 23 and 24) the team travelled to Trochu for a tournament. Trochu won the tournament, with Olds coming in second and DVSS coming in third in their pool. On October 21 the team hosted Prairie Christian Academy and took a loss.
   Over the weekend of October 16 and 17 the team travelled to Airdrie for Kodiak Klassic. Crocker said although the team didn’t place for a medal, she was proud of how they played.
   “We saw some highly skilled, very tall girls play some volleyball. We put up an amazing fight… that was some volleyball those girls had yet to be exposed to as a team this year,” Crocker said.
   As part of the tournament, each of the teams were asked to participate in a food drive. Of the about 600 food items donated, Crocker said the senior girls dynos team donated 148 items. Thomson was voted by the team as all star for the tournament.
   The team will now travel to Three Hills on Wednesday, November 4.

Titans show discipline in Strathmore win

The Senior Titans found redemption versus Strathmore last Saturday, with a win.

While the game as largely symbolic, being the final game for both teams this season in Rangeland League play, the Titans went to Strathmore with something to prove. After being beat just a couple weeks before, this time the Titans had the last word.

“We had a lot of mistakes the first time we played them, but we cleaned that up and played a pretty good game,” said coach Ken Fournier.

This time the Titans only had one turnover, and bounced back on defense. They were tough as Devon Law had four bat downs, Shawn McTaggart had two, and Reid Nielsen had an interception.

“Our defensive coverage was much better. They did get a long pass in, but we denied them a long run with it,” said Coach Fournier. “We had really good pressure from our defensive line.”

On offense, the Titans were humming.

“Aiden Enns scored three touchdowns, and the runs were all over 30 yards,” said Fournier. He had at least 150 yards on the ground.

Derek Carrier and Noah Miles also both scored.

Fournier explains the team did much more passing than it normally does, a sign the running game is firing. The key for Fournier was discipline.

“It was a much more focused game. All week we worked on discipline and focus. We ran each series in that entire week of practice; we ran our offense, with no huddle. It made a big difference for us in the first quarter. We were able to keep them on their heels and they were not able to make any adjustments.”

The Titans were up 21-6 after the first half, and went on to win 35-13.

Playoffs are still a ways off. This Friday night they are hosting Cardston in exhibition play.

“They are in the same position as us, they are out of their league play, so they are looking to stay sharp,” said Fournier. “You can’t sit for three weeks and go into provincials against teams that are just finishing league playoffs. We want to keep ourselves sharp and keep our focus level high.”

With this win, the Titans slide into 7th place, up from 9th in the Tier IV provincial rankings. This Friday’s game time is 7 p.m.

McDonald’s Novice Raptors have strong weekend

minor hockey oct 25

The Drumheller Raptors minor hockey teams were in action this weekend at Memorial Arena.

The McDonald’s Novice Raptors hosted the Lethbridge Flyers on Sunday morning and took a 5-1 victory.

Scoring began early in the first period when Ryan Schrock scored for the Raptors. Just a few moments later he scored his second goal of the game. With just a few seconds remaining in the first period Paxton Olsen scored to make it 3-0 Drumheller.

Paxton scored his second goal of the game before Gavin Olsen scored to make it 5-0. Lethbridge scored their lone goal with just a minute left in the second by Caiden Dragland. There was no scoring in the third period.

On Saturday, the team travelled to Hussar to face Indus and went home with a 33-1 win.

Head coach Dennis Olsen said the team played well.

“They played real good positions. The defense did a good job, the goaltending was real well, they all played really well together,” he said.

The team has played four league games so far this season.

Olsen said the team is working on its break out and passing in practice.

Next up the team will host Hanna on Halloween at 9 a.m.

Other teams in the league were in action as well. On Saturday, the Canalta Novice Raptors hosted Chestermere and took a 5-4 loss, the Yavis Atom Raptors hosted Lethbridge and took a 10-5 loss, the NGC Peewee Raptors hosted Chestermere and tied 7-7 on Saturday, the Western Chev Bantam Raptors hosted the Rocky Mountain House AA and took a 5-1 loss On Sunday, the Encana Atom Raptors hosted Indus and took a 6-0 win, and the Boston Pizza Bantam Raptors hosted the Airdrie Red team and took 12-1 loss.

More Articles ...