Jonas Emilsson
www.KramMag.com

The Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs senior boys’ volleyball team are one win away from running the table on the 2009 volleyball season.

Thanks to a thrilling 3-2 (25-14, 18-25, 25-20, 16-25, 15-10) victory over the hard-hitting Western Canada Redmen, the Bulldogs now face the task of preparing for the championship match on Saturday against the Bishop Carroll Cardinals.

The Cardinals defeated the Centennial Coyotes 3-0 in their semi-final, also played on Thursday night.

The Bulldogs and Redmen put on a show for the ages in front of a boisterous crowd of volleyball fans at the Bulldogs’ home gym, who no doubt left the school feeling entertained regardless of whether their team won or lost.

“It was a great game by both teams,” said Bulldogs’ head coach Tim Clack.  “Western has improved so much over the year since we played them earlier in the season.”  I love watching both teams play volleyball, Western and us have a long rivalry and it was great volleyball by both sides.”

The back and forth duel, which saw neither team able to string together back to back set victories, was a much different match compared to the their last meeting in early October which saw the Bulldogs come away with a 3-0 victory.

“I knew Western was improving as the year went along but I haven’t seen them since early October but we expected that they would be giving it everything that they had, and we weren’t disappointed,” said Clack.

But despite being much improved, the Redmen didn’t have an answer for the Bulldog’s attack down the middle.

Lucas Falcione and Jon Hammond had a field day pounding ball after ball past the Redmen’s defenders.

“The key to the game was the guys getting their passing down so that we could run our middle because our middles are strong middles,” said Clack.  “Playing the middle, they don’t know where it’s coming from.”

Falcione was also busy on the defensive end, finding ways to get to balls that seemed destined to be heading for the hardwood.

In one important sequence late in the fifth and deciding set, Falcione made three massive digs in a row before Hammond finally pounded the ball home for a Bulldog point.

“He’s in the right spot at the right time and that’s what we’ve been working on for the last three months almost,” said Clack about his middle hitter’s defensive abilities.

The Bulldogs will play the Cardinals at 7pm on Saturday night at the University of Calgary’s Jack Simpson gym.

The Cardinals defeated the Centennial Coyotes 3-0 in their semi-final match-up.

The William Aberhart Trojans will face the EP Scarlett Lancers in the senior girls’ Div. I final at 5pm.

Check back on Saturday evening for complete coverage of both Div. I finals.

More action photos from this game are available HERE.