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Neerlandia takes gold in zones

It was the perfect way to end the season. The Neerlandia girls and boys volleyball teams faced Pembina North in zone finals Nov. 15 and Girls coach Renee Rentz said both teams won gold.
Darrah Bakker sends the ball over the net during a set against the Breton Cougars. Neerlandia won 25-14 and 25-20 respectively. The games were part of zone finals.
Darrah Bakker sends the ball over the net during a set against the Breton Cougars. Neerlandia won 25-14 and 25-20 respectively. The games were part of zone finals.

It was the perfect way to end the season.

The Neerlandia girls and boys volleyball teams faced Pembina North in zone finals Nov. 15 and Girls coach Renee Rentz said both teams won gold.

“In the round-robin tournament we played CCRS first and ended both sets 25-14 and 25-10. After them, we faced and defeated the Kinuso Knights fairly easily,” Rentz said, noting their final game before the playoffs was against the Breton Cougars and the girls won both sets by narrow margins.

Rentz said it was the end of the season.

“All of the girls did such a great job working together as a team and so many of them could be pointed out for their improvement and for their sportsmanship but I can’t single out any one player over the rest. The group I coached this year was just incredible. We had a good season where we won divisionals and zones and placed second in other tournaments,” she said, adding having Neerlandia host zones was an honour.

“It was unexpected. We were supposed to go to Spruce Grove but in order to get more teams into zones, they [Spruce Grove] couldn’t host the boys and girls teams and so we ended up doing it. The girls absolutely loved playing in their school and having the other kids, especially the younger ones come and watch. Grade 1’ers don’t usually get a chance to watch a volleyball game and everyone was super excited,” she said.

Rentz said the girls did a fantastic job.

“The take-away for the girls, I would say, would be the realization that no matter what team you play, you have to watch your sides,” she added.

Boys coach Howard Gelderman agreed, adding it was a classic team effort.

“We faced a lot of the smaller schools in our zone and faced Pembina North in the finals,” he said, adding to him, it says a lot about the division.

“We had an inkling that we would face [Pembina North] in the last game but you know, you never know who you’re going to end up against, especially when there are ten teams competing. Our portion of zones was hosted by Living Water School in Spruce Grove and while the other teams played strong, we played stronger,” Gelderman said, adding the final scores for the sets against Pembina North were 25-15 and 25-19 respectively.

“It was an awesome year and I’m really proud of the tremendous improvement of all of the players that I coached. All in all, the improvement of the less experienced players and the leadership of a core group of our boys was, in my opinion, pivotal to our success,” he said, adding for Neerlandia to host zones for the first time was really exciting.

“That is the first time it has happened at the school,” he added.

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