By Joel van der Veen
LOREBURN — Few would have welcomed the prospect of a rainy Labour Day weekend, but it proved a boon for organizers of Loreburn’s annual senior girls volleyball tournament.
The rain may have put farmers behind schedule, but it also brought piles of spectators and volunteers to the Loreburn rink, said Brandy Losie.
“The place was packed all Friday night and all day Saturday,” said the village administrator. “The rain really helped.”
A total of 15 teams competed in the senior RAVE (Really Amazing Volleyball Event) tournament, held Sept. 4 and 5 and organized by the Loreburn Recreation Board and Loreburn Central School (LCS).
The North West Central School Wildcats from Plenty were the winners of the event, coming out on top in the championship pool that also included the Assiniboia Rockets, the Eston Mustangs and the Davidson/Loreburn RaiTec B.
Other competitors included the Hanley Sabers, the Kenaston Kodiaks, the LCBI Bisons, the Frontier Raiders, the Outlook Blues, the Dinsmore Wildcats, the Beechy/Lucky Lake Blazers, the Marengo/Westcliff High Warriors, the Eatonia Spartans and the St. Walburg Saints.
Losie said planning for the event hit a snag as the new gym floor at LCS wasn’t yet ready for use, forcing organizers to hold all the matches in the Loreburn rink.
However, two teams subsequently dropped out of the event, and with players from the Davidson/Loreburn RaiTec splitting into two teams, the tournament went ahead smoothly.
Losie said the weekend went well from an organizational standpoint. The school and recreation board have combined forces to run the tournament, with lots of help from students and others.
The teams were divided into three pools for round robin games on Friday night and Saturday morning. They were then split up again based on their performance, with the winner declared from the championship pool.
The Davidson/Loreburn B team won all eight of its matches in the round robin section, finishing first in the C pool, but ended up fourth in the championship pool with just one win out of six matches.
Kenaston won five matches and lost three in the round robin, coming second in the B pool, and then finished third in the X pool with three wins and three losses.
Hanley had four wins and four losses in the round robin section, coming third in pool C, but then won five out of six matches in the X pool to take first place there.
The Davidson/Loreburn A team won three and lost five in the round robin section, giving them fourth place in the A pool. They then finished in second place in the Y pool with three wins and three losses.
Loreburn’s junior volleyball tournament was scheduled for this past weekend, featuring a total of 16 entries, evenly divided between boys’ and girls’ teams.
Losie said the gym floor was ready to go as of last Tuesday, so both the school and the rink were expected to be busy over the weekend. Details will follow in an upcoming edition of the Leader.