The Steinbach Regional Secondary School junior varsity girls volleyball team captured the South Central Athletic Conference AAAA championship banner Tuesday night at Glenlawn Collegiate in Winnipeg.

The Sabres swept the College Jeanne-Sauve Olympiens 25-14, 25-22, 27-25.

“I’m so proud of my team,” said SRSS captain Jamie Kotyk shorty after parents and media snapped pictures of the Sabres with the SCAC championship banner. “We’ve gone undefeated this season, but every game is just so different. You never know what’s going to happen. You never know what to expect. We went into this game, we just wanted to do our best and just play like we wanted to play and that showed on the court. We served really well, we communicated well as a team, we ran to get every ball and our defense was good.”

Twice the Olympiens were one point away from extending the final to a fourth set, but the Sabres prevailed and completed the hard fought three-set sweep.

“That’s the best match we’ve had with them all year,” noted SRSS head coach Bryan Tottle on their battle with CJS. “They were tenacious, and they were relentless. We had to keep serving tough and we had to play a lot better defense than we have in the past to get by them. They had me worried. Credit to them, they played a really strong match.”

Steinbach Regional went 7-0 in the SCAC regular season and defeated the J.H. Bruns Broncos 25-19, 25-15, 25-11 in the semifinals Monday night in Steinbach.

Coach Tottle pointed out the sweep of College Jeanne-Sauve on Tuesday capped off a fantastic season so far. “These are things kids are going to remember for a while. It’s important for them to finish off this SCAC league on a strong note because that’s kind of how they played all year. It was fitting for them.”

SCAC schools will host the Provincial AAAA Junior Varsity Volleyball Championship next week and undoubtedly the Sabres, who have been the MHSAA’s number one ranked team for the entire season, will be the number one seed.

“We’re definitely going to keep on doing what we’ve been doing all season,” captain Kotyk said. “Provincials is where every team wants to be, but you can’t change your thought process. It’s volleyball, every game is a game. We’ll try our hardest and play how we play every single game. When we’re training, we’re still going to keep on pushing ourselves harder. We want to get better and all season we’ve improved so well. The next week will be insane. We’ll train so hard.”


2023 SCAC Junior Varsity Girls AAAA volleyball champions
Steinbach Regional Secondary School Sabres roster: Isabella Braun, Kaylee Dalupang, Madelyn Friesen, Madelyn Hiebert, Amy Johnson, Elenoa Kaukirewa, Jamie Kotyk, Silina-Kae Masi, Jenae Mason, Jadyn Plett, Jamie Rempel, Chloe Thiessen, Olivia Unrau & Abigail Voth. Bryan Tottle (head coach) & Raygan Tottle (assistant coach)