The Imperial Scorpions 15 and under girls volleyball team had a vicious sting this past spring by securing a silver medal in the 2013 Conexus Provincial Volleyball Championships.

The Scorpions took the tier 5 medal by holding a strong Moose Jaw Panthers squad to a tough three-game set in the final matchup May 5 in Saskatoon. The Panthers won the gold medal game 25-20, 21-25, 15-13, but had to hold off a strong push from the Scorpions late in the third game to secure their championship.

“In the third set, one team would get a point and then the other team would get a point,” said Kennedy Lewis, 15, middle for the Scorpions.

She said the Panthers started to pull out to an impressive lead, but somehow the Scorpions scratched their way back and it wasn’t until the final points were made that the Moose Jaw team took the gold.

“It was a really good go, so nobody was disappointed,” said Kennedy. “We had a really good time.”

Katherine Rieger, head coach of the 15U Scorpions, said the club was a “starting team,” but the girls came together by the end of the January to May season to finish near the top of the standings.

“We started the team this year and we started out pretty much dead last, or not quite, in our first tournament,” said Rieger. “We medaled in tier 5, but we had played some amazing games against some of those top tier 2 teams and even bottom tier 1 teams.

“It just happened that we have kids that are 13 years old playing on the team compared to kids that are 15 years old playing on the other teams.”

Rieger said the competition in club volleyball is much “tougher” than what the players see in high school games, but no matter how tough the competition all the girls on the team see time on the court. She said this is done because the purpose of the 15U team is the development of playing skills.

To read more please see the June 10 print edition of The Davidson Leader.