SPORTS FLASHBACKK 1968: SCI Sabrettes climb to top of volleyball ladder
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Finishing third in the 1967 Manitoba High School Volleyball provincials, SCI Saberettes’ coach Jake Epp promised the team would be even stronger the next year.
The team lived up to expectations, and after more than a dozen matches, climbed two more rungs up the ladder to claim the first ever high school girls’ volleyball title by a rural Manitoba team.
The Steinbach Collegiate girls’ volleyball team reached the ultimate in provincial volleyball status by defeating Gimli in the 1968 Manitoba Provincial championships, after 12 long hours of volleyball at the University of Manitoba gym.
The SCI girls had played through the gruelling 12-game round-robin with only four losses, and waited anxiously to see if they would make the semi-finals.
Some local fans left early, as they thought only a near miracle could place the Sabrettes in the semi-finals. The miracle happened when MBCI defeated St John’s twice, handing them their fourth and fifth losses. Glenlawn then lost its final game to a sixth place team to move them out of second and give Steinbach a berth in the playoffs, along with Gimli, Miles Mac and Dakota.
Miles Mac had lost only one game in the round-robin and was favoured to win against the Sabrettes in the semis.
The Sabrettes, lacking height, preferred to let the Miles Mac team be the aggressor. This tactic paid off, as cool, defensive ball-handling and alertness gave them the series, losing 15-13 in the first, then winning 15-11 and 17-15 in the remaining two games.
After playing 15 games, the finals boiled down to an endurance test. Gimli had defeated Dakota in the other semi-final and now met with the Steinbach teams in the finals. The Sabrettes had defeated them twice in round-robin play and came into the match with confidence.
The Steinbach team won the first game handily, but fell back in the second, losing 15-12, then went on to win the third, 15-13.
At this point, the gymnasium broke into a state of pandemonium, as teams from Dakota, who were winners of the Steinbach invitational tourney for the past two years, and Altona had stayed to cheer for the Sabrettes.
It was the first time since the organization of the tournament that a rural team had won the championship.
Earlier in the high school volleyball season, the Sabrettes showed they were a team that could compete with the top city teams, finishing second to Dakota Lancerettes in a tournament at the SCI, November 7.
The host girls’ team defeated the Lancerettes twice in round-robin play and Miles Mac Collegiate in the semi-finals, before losing to Dakota in the final match.
That situation was repeated for Sabrettes at the provincials when they needed to get past Miles Mac again reach the finals.
In the semi-finals, Steinbach lost the first game to the heavily-favoured Miles Mac Collegiate team by a 15-13 margin, then came back to win 15-11 and 17-15.
Gimli defeated Dakota in the other semi-final match-up and two rural teams met in the provincial high school volleyball championship for the first time since the organization of the tournament earlier in the decade.