After a season of ups and downs, the Mission Roadrunners senior women’s volleyball team has its eyes on provincials.
The Roadrunners wrapped up their regular season last week with a “Seniors’ Night” matchup against R.E. Mountain.
Alex Garbutt, Jasmen Aulakh, Piper Stene, Avrey Steele, Eveann Hanus, Ella Ullrich and Eva Goddard are the seven players graduating this year from Mission Secondary.
Despite losing in four sets, the gym was full and the crowd wore white as part of the “white out”.
“The undergrads did a terrific job celebrating their grads. The girls, over the last 15 years, have really made it more and more important to them. So they have passed down a tradition where they really give back, and want to make the experience for the seniors really special,” Mission coach Andrew Hale said.
Mission had a tough start to the season with a trio of starters suffering major injuries – one grade 12 and two grade 11s who were members of the 2023 junior squad that made provincials.
“Since then, it's been a rolling band of putting together lineups and injuries and a bunch of learning,” Hale said.
Over the past month, Hale says the team has started to come together.
The Roadrunners have fine-tuned their roles and according to Hale, some of the core grade 11s have discovered they can dominate at the next level.
Grade 11s Maddy Kleindienst, Avery Woll, and Allison Hale have emerged as the team’s go-to options in different aspects of the game.
“They've started to really coalesce into the heart of what we need to do,” Hale said.
Mission has had competitive games against Yale and GW Graham – two of the top teams in the province.
“We're looking for really competitive matches all the time. So sometimes you take your lumps – especially the start of the season – but it comes back to pay dividends by the end, usually,” Hale said.
The Roadrunners host the Yale Lions at Heritage Park Middle School in a playoff game on Tuesday (Nov. 12) at 8 p.m. with hopes of advancing to provincials.
Semi-finals are slated for Wednesday (Nov. 13) and the gold and bronze matches for Thursday (Nov. 14).
The finalists are guaranteed a spot in provincials but there is also a chance of a third berth.
