KENSINGTON – For the Red Rock Volleyball Club, it’s all about the big picture.
Red Rock, which is sending 15-under and 17-under teams to the Volleyball Canada national championships, is a new club this year.
“There are some good things happening,” said Red Rock under-17 coach Lynn Boudreau before a recent exhibition game against the Kensington Crusaders’ under-18 team at Kensington Intermediate-Senior High School. “Randy Goodman, who coaches with me, and I have a two-year goal. For us it’s not about everything that happens this year. Red Rock club has a goal of having every player go on to play college or university.”
The Crusaders are also competing in the nationals in Edmonton. The Red Rock under-17 team flies out on Saturday, and begins competition on Sunday.
“We talked that we want to be competitive, and I know that sounds cheesy,” said a smiling Boudreau. “With that, we want to be in the top half of our tier. We made the decision to go Tier 3.
“From what I understand, the Tier 1 teams are the best in the country. Tier 2 is the big provinces’ second-best teams, so we decided for this year Tier 3 is where we want to be. If we play well, I think we have an opportunity to do well in the playoffs.”
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Red Rock has put in a lot of work training for nationals, including travelling to Halifax twice and Fredericton once for the opportunity to compete against stiff competition.
“We have been improving all the time,” assessed Boudreau. “The big part for us is improving our knowledge of the game. The girls have the skills, it’s learning the game.”
All of the Red Rock players have played P.E.I. School Athletic Association volleyball, and two of the team members – Mary Lowther and Abby Hyndman – were members of the 2017 Canada Summer Games volleyball squad.
“Ball control is going to be key for us,” continued Boudreau. “Right now, it’s our biggest weakness. We are going to need to be on top of our game for that.
“The other thing we have been working hard on is aggressive serving. Aggressive serving is part of offence and we’ve worked on that a lot.”
Boudreau is pleased that Red Rock has seen a big improvement in its attack-kill percentage.
“At the beginning of the year it was very low, and we have been tracking it every single match, and it’s increasing,” explained Boudreau. “For players, we have goals we want every player to be in that plus-25 per cent kill rate, and we are starting to reach that.”
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