By Darren Lum

Dec. 20 2016

It’s all about working towards improvement said Red Hawks senior girls’ volleyball team head coach Steve Smith after hosting five Kawartha West high schools on Wednesday Dec. 14 for an exhibition tournament.

“The girls continue to make improvements however yesterday being their home tournament nerves excitement etc. always play into the results. Traditionally the home tournaments are never a true indication of the talent that is shown when we travel to other tournaments” he wrote in an email.

“The girls need to be mentally tough moving forward in their season. Yesterday’s tournament showed [me] a couple of areas where the team has weaknesses which I have not addressed yet but will in the days ahead.”

Before the schools played the scheduled five matches Smith made a decision for the safety of officials coaches and players.

Heavy snowfall and snow squalls  forced him to cut the tournament short after three matches for each school.

“Most teams had a fair distance to travel so in fairness/safety of all concerned (teams and referees) I called the tournament and sent the teams home” he said.

The field of competition included St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School Lindsay Collegiate Vocational Institute I.E. Weldon Fenelon Falls Secondary School and Brock High School of Durham.

They played rally-point games and limited to only two games per match.

Haliburton played Fenelon well but were shut out (15-25 and 21-25) in their opening match. Against I.E. Weldon the Hawks started slow (16-25) and improved but lost again (20-25). The team finished against the Titans of St. Thomas with a better result splitting (25-16 and 18-25).

The team will play this coming Wednesday Dec. 21 and use it to improve.

Another photo on page 22.