It was a very successful season for Cochrane high school volleyball, as all four of the Cobra teams won medals as well as one Bow Valley during the Rocky View Sports Association (RVSA) Divisional Championships that took place on Nov. 8.
The Bobcats junior girls team won the Tier 2 championship after they defeated the Bert Church Chargers in four games … the Chargers won the first game 25-15, but the Bobcats struck back with three straight wins with scores of 25-16, 25-11 and 25-22 to take the gold medal.
The junior high Cobras took the Tier 1 bronze medal in straight sets after they beat the Chestermere Cowboys 29-9, 25-10 and 25-15.
Cochrane High School’s senior girl team was dominant all season long, going undefeated in league play with a 6-0 record and then swept through the playoffs with back-to-back straight set victories in the semi-finals against the Springbank Phoenix as well as the championship game against Chestermere.
The Cobra senior boys were equally as dominant throughout league play, winning all five games they were in, and placed themselves in the top seed for the playoff round. The Cobras defeated Bert Church in straight sets with scores of 25-17, 25-17 and 25-16.
The win matched up the Cobras with Springbank in the gold medal game, which came down to the fifth and final set. Cochrane High won the game in a back-and-forth affair, losing the first and forth sets 25-19 and 25-22 while taking the second, third and fifth sets 28-26, 25-16 and 15-13 to bring home the Cobras’ third gold medal of the evening.
Senior Cobras head coach Doug Jensen was happy with how is team handled the pressure of the final game.
“The game against Springbank was an epic battle, it was back and forth, having to go to a fifth and final set to decide the gold was very intense … the game was such a battle and I’m proud of the kids for dealing with the intensity and pressure as well as they did,” Jensen said.
“We have a young team that in the past have shied away from the competitiveness in games we’ve played against really good teams. There have been games in the past where we’ve sort of given up on the game, but we didn’t do that whatsoever … we committed to the game from start to finish and dealt with the challenges we faced throughout the game.”
The Cobras only have three Grade 12s on their – Matt Collings, Nic Petrone and Joe Cline – who are all graduating. Jensen said he’ll take some time off before looking ahead to the work they’ll have to do next season.
“To be honest, I’m not even thinking about next season right now. High school sports isn’t like professional sports where teams stick with the same players for the most part,” Jensen said.
“We lose kids and have to reset, reload and sometimes rebuild but we’ll take some time to reflect and look ahead to next year because we should be a tough team to beat.”
The Zone Championships will take place Nov. 17 and 18 for all levels at varying locations and senior Provincial Championships will take place Nov. 23 to Nov. 25 in Strathmore and Medicine Hat.
